Waking Up In Mauville
by Drindalis
Summary: After a crazy night at a bar throws everyone for a loop, Lyra and Silver are left to pick up the pieces. Who knew it would be so hard for them to do? Remember, what happens in Mauville, stays in Mauville. Rated for Lyra's drunken potty mouth!
1. Lyra Hates Booze

DJG: "Okay, people! I got the idea for this from, yup, you guessed it, Waking Up In Vegas by Katy Perry. I was oh so casually playing Soul Silver and listening to my MP3 player at the same time (oh, like you've never done it before!) and at a scene with your rival, Waking Up In Vegas started playing, and I thought, "Hmm…I could go for some bacon right now." So, I abandoned both my MP3 and my DS and fried up some bacon and had a delicious BLT. And then, as I was throwing away my paper plate, I thought, "Hmm, I should write something about Lyra and Silver going to a bar. What chaos would ensue?" And thus, this story came to be."

Muse: *snore*

DJG: *looks back at the author's note* "Oh, COME ON! It's not that big!" *looks again* "…is it?"

* * *

><p>"You want me to <em>what<em>?"

"Aw, come on, Lyra! It'll be fun! You never do anything for your birthday, and this one is actually important!"

"Ethan, _no._ I'm turning eighteen, not twenty-one. My mom would _murder_ me if she knew I was in a casino!"

"That's why she won't find out! C'mon! Your mom's never been to Hoenn! She won't know the legal drinking age there is eighteen unless you tell her!"

"B-but-"

"No buts, Lyra! You don't even have to drink! Let's just go out to the Mauville Game Corner for a few hours, listen to music, chill…"

"…fine. But I swear, if I see anyone there I know, I reserve the right to leave and lock myself in my room for the rest of forever, maybe longer."

"Sweet! Oh w-wait, not about the…you know, forever thing…But seriously, this is great! You never do anything fun anymore! I'll see you in Mauville at seven tomorrow night. Don't be late!"

I was so doomed.

* * *

><p>I showed up at six forty-five, unfortunately for me. I told Skarmory to fly as slow as possible, but we still managed to be early.<p>

_~My life sucks.~_

Only _after_ I had agreed to show up did I realize that since we were celebrating my birthday a day early…tonight was New Years. And I was going to a casino/bar/club…thing. Hell, I'd never been inside it before! I had literally no clue what to expect, or even what to wear for that matter. So, I'd just kept it simple. I took my hair down and left my hat at home, and felt strangely short without it. I'd also swapped my usual outfit for a small sky blue dress that went just above my knees. And I

_~against my better judgment~_

wore matching blue high heels that made up for my lack of a hat. They also made my feet look like caged animals. Did they seriously need that many straps? Where did I even buy these? _DID_ I even buy these? …I seriously needed to quit ranting. Anyway, to say I was uncomfortable was a massive understatement. It was freezing outside, and the wind was picking up, making me shiver. I also kept Skarmory out, hoping his size and aggressive nature would keep any creeps away. Like I said, I'd never been in a bar before! I was going on what I knew from my mother!

~_I hate having my birthday a day after New Years.~_

It had never really made much a difference before, but I guess having your friends

_~set you up~_

take you out to clubs when you didn't want to was kind of in their job description. Suddenly, a large bird Pokemon descended from the night sky, and landed literally two feet from me. Well, crash landed was more like it. Ethan poked his head up out of a bundle of blue feathers, and huffed as they fell out of his hair. "So much for a flashy entrance, eh, Swellow?" he asked sheepishly, crawling to his feet. The majestic looking bird Pokemon snorted at him, and started prooning its feathers.

Ethan recalled his Pokemon and looked up at the sky. "I guess we should go inside, huh Lyra? The weather's getting bad." I shivered and managed to glare at him.

~_No shit, Sherlock. Maybe you should apply for a job as a weatherman, I'm sure you could use your mad observation skills for much more beneficial things than pointing out the obvious to me.~_

Right as he said that, harsh rain began to pour down. "Gah! C'mon, Lyra!" he yelped, grabbing my hand and dragging me through the doors. My nostrils were instantly raped by the smell of booze, sweat, and cigarette smoke. As soon as we were inside, a beefy security guard came up to us. "'Scuse me. You got yo' I.D?" he asked Ethan. "Sure. Here ya go." he said, handing the man his trainer's license. The man looked at it and grunted, waving us through.

"Uh…Ethan? I'm not legal yet." I felt the need to remind him.

"Yeah. I know." he said cheerfully.

"You do realize I could have been thrown out into the rain?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, Lyra. That could have been a possibility." Ethan said, that cocky smile not leaving his face.

I was just about to come up with a witty reply, when I noticed the bouncer check a few people who were _leaving_ for I.D. "…..What the-!" Was pretty much all I could think of.

"Ethan! I won't turn eighteen until tomorrow! And I don't think I'm gonna be lucky enough to get by without being checked _again_!" I began to enter freak-out mode. "That means we're gonna be stuck here all night! My mom's gonna kill me if I don't show up tomorrow! Oh no, my reputation is gonna be trashed! I'll never be the same again! People won't look up to me anymore! They might even take away my title! Do you know how long it took to remember to write 'Champion Lyra' instead of just plain Lyra? I'm gonna have to relearn it all ov…_!_"

I had just realized that Ethan had walked away. In the middle of my rant. _MY_ rant. My night just got a hell of a lot worse. Muttering about how unfair it was that I couldn't murder my best friend, I stomped over to a counter for the games and bought 50 coins. Apparently, everything here is paid for in coins, including food and booze.

"Screw this." I grumbled, heading for the exit. Maybe if I asked politely, when the bouncer threw me out he could try to make me land on my face so no one would recognize me. I was just about ready to approach him, when suddenly, I found an arm around my shoulders. "Aw…you ain't le…leaving yet, are…are ya?" The source of the arm was a drunken teenager in a green hoodie with short black hair and dull blue eyes.

"Yes. I am. Because I, unlike you, have better things to do than get pisspoor drunk on a holiday just because I can't think of anything better to do with my life! Now, if you'll excuse me…" I snapped, totally not in the mood for this crap. I didn't want to come here in the first place, and now I had random drunks thinking I was their girlfriend. Good to know I spent months training Pokemon to be thought of as just another whore.

"Hey. _Hey…_you're kinda…you're pretty fun-_ny_. Funny girl. Hey…that sounds weird…I-it sounds funny…ya…ya know…like, _you're_ kinda funny." the guy laughed, but didn't move his arm. I made a face.

_~Just how drunk is this guy?~_

"Hey, guys! Come…c'mon over here…this chick…this girl _funny." _Oh great. He has friends. Two other people came over, a guy and a girl, the other guy just as drunk as the first. "…Funny?" the second guy asked skeptically. He had a grey vest on over a purple T shirt and was wearing a gold necklace. The girl just stood there and didn't say anything.

"Y-yeah, man. You need to check this shit _owt_, man, cuz…uh…this girl be funny! Hey, uh…what's yo name, 'gain? Whatev's, dude…say somethin' funny, kay?" I stared at him. I mean, come on. What was I supposed to say? "Uh…"

"Man, you lie! This chick ain't funny. You just waaay too drunk, dude. You'd think a hooker was funny right now!" Purple Shirt said irritably. Girl rolled her eyes at the two guys. "H-hey. I'm not…I ain't _drunk_…I'm shipty…I mean tipshy!" Green Hoodie snapped back.

"Hokay. Glad I could help settle this, I'm just gonna go-" I started, but Purple Shirt interrupted me.

"Go? Naw, you don't hafta go jus' cuz you ain't funny. Stay…have a drink or two. Quit bein' so edgy!" As he said this, he slid his drink towards me.

"Uh…no thanks. My friend's probably looking for me." I said quickly. Of course, I'm sure the exact opposite was true, but these guys didn't need to know that, did they?

"Yo friend could come ova' here too, y'know. All the ladies in the club here is welcome at ow' table." Purple Shirt said, gesturing to Green Hoodie and himself. The whole tough-guy look was thrown off by Green Hoodie hiccuping, and then giggling girlishly. Purple Shirt sighed and rolled his eyes. "Maybe you right. It might be time to blow this burg. How 'bout you come ova' to my hotel room? I'm top floor, baby. Hmm? Ya know you can't resist that!"

Actually, I could. Quite easily, in fact. "No thanks. I need to find my friend and get home. I really shouldn't-" As I stood up, his hand reached out and grabbed my shoulder, forcing me to sit. It was then I realized Purple Shirt was a really good faker. No one as drunk as he had been could have moved that fast. "Stay." he said in a low, dangerous voice, his calm demeanor falling away. It was then I started internally freaking out.

"Now, you listen to me. We're gonna walk outta here, nice and easy, and you ain't gonna do anything you might regret later, ri-?" His threat was cut off by a tap on the shoulder.

"Hey. Hey buddy. She said she didn't want to. Now back off." a quiet, yet commanding voice said. Purple Shirt whirled around angrily, and I glanced up into the face of my savior. And blinked.

~_Oh, no fuckin' way.~_

"S-Silver? H-hey, my man, h-how you been?" Purple Shirt asked nervously, all hostile signs falling away. Silver looked the same he always used to, except his hair was longer than it was the last time I'd seen him, and he was taller. There were also noticeable changes in his facial structure. He'd lost any baby fat he might have had, and his eyes weren't so…angry, like they used to be.

"Damian…we've had this conversation before…" he said, not taking his eyes off of Purple Shirt-er…Damian. "…and it looks like you didn't learn anything about knowing when to back off."

"Sh-shit, bro, I'm sorry…if she's yo' ho, take her! I din' know, a'ight?" Damian looked quiet nervous to have Silver's glare directed at him. In my opinion, he should have been more worried about _my _glare. _No one _calls me that and gets away with it!

"Get out." Silver spat, looking disgusted.

"Wha-?" Damian asked.

"Get out. You've had your chance. Multiple times, in fact. You blew it. Now leave."

Green Hoodie had decided to get involved.

"Hey, you can't-"

He wisely decided to be silent as Silver's Typlosion growled viciously from behind him, even Silver looking a little surprised at the normally lazy Pokemon's behavior.

Just then, the bouncer from before came up, towering over all of them. "Hey…is there a problem over here?" The tone of his voice suggested that there had _better_ not be a problem. I cowered internally.

"No, sir! In fact, me an' my homies was jus' leavin'." Damian strolled towards the exit, Green Hoodie and Girl following behind him. Right as they were about to leave, he turned and shot Silver a glare. "This ain't over, Silver. Not by a long shot." And with that ominous message hanging in the air, they were gone.

I breathed a sigh of relief. I was a little surprised when Silver did, too. "I need a drink." he muttered, and walked away before I could say anything, his Typlosion yawning and returning to its Pokeball. "Hey!" I yelped indignantly, realizing I was being left behind for the second time that night! And it wasn't even nine-thirty! I mean, I know he doesn't really like me, but can't he even acknowledge my existence a bit? Is that too much to ask?

By the time I caught up to him, he was already at the bar, a drink in his hand. I sat down next to him and waited for him to _feel_ me glaring at him. After he set down his shot glass, he glanced at me out of the corner of his eyes. "…can I help you?"

"Why did you do that?" I asked, curiosity getting the better of me. I just couldn't believe _Silver_ of all people, helping _me_! Normally, he wouldn't have even considered it! What brought about the change? Even if it _was_ Silver, it was a very kind thing to do.

"What, you wanted him all over you like that? Fine, go chase after him. Not my problem." he said, turning around on the bar stool so he could rest his arms on the bar.

"No! I mean…that was, a bit out of character for you, wasn't it?" I asked, ignoring the free drink the bartender had brought me.

"Well, if you're expecting me to apologize, you're…wait, what did you just say?" he asked, twirling to stool around to face me.

It was then that I realized he didn't even know who I was.

All thoughts of him being kind and maybe changing for the better flew out the window.

"You seriously don't recognize me?" I demanded, glaring at him. He stopped moving the bar stool and froze, turning to look at me slowly.

"…Lyra?"

I nodded the affirmative.

He slowly turned back to face the bar. "…well, fuck!" he swore, downing his shot in one gulp. He slammed the glass back down with more force than what was necessary. "Scotch," he called to the bartender, "And make it a double!"

"Silver! What is wrong with you!" I yelled at him. He never drank before! I had convinced myself that this had nothing to do with him being underage in all regions.

"Oh, shut it…tonight, I _need_ it." he said, twirling the stool again. I stuck my foot out, blocking him from moving it anymore. It was getting really annoying.

"You sound like a drug addict! You do NOT _need_ it!" I scolded him, pushing my own untouched drink out of his reach as he made a move to grab it.

He huffed.

"Oh, yeah? Well, what do you know, anyway?" he snapped at me, but made a noise of happiness as the bartender set down his drink and walked away. We both lunged for it at the same time, but his reflexes were slower than mine, probably from that other shot he had earlier. And who knew just how many drinks he had before I had even shown up?

He stared at the alcohol in my hands and smirked. "All right, you got it. Now…what are you going to do with it?" He seemed so smug that he had me at a loss, and I wanted to wipe that grin off his face so bad, that I did the first thing I could think of.

I downed it in one shot.

And immediately wished I hadn't. I coughed loudly, choking on the burning liquid. Silver stared at me with a look of disbelief as I slowly calmed myself down, setting down the glass. "Man! How can you drink that stuff? Tastes like cat pee!" I declared, already feeling a bit…detached from my very first drink.

"I'm sure you would know." he scoffed, looking more than a little put out that he was now shotless.

"Aw, don't be sad, Emo Kid! Hey, bartender! Two more over here!" I called, banging my glass on the counter. I giggled in a most un-Lyra…y way at Silver's expression at the Emo Kid comment.

"I'm not emo!" he grumbled, but brightened up as the booze arrived. I did too. Now I wondered why I'd ever thought beer was bad, when beer was most definitely _good_. Just not for Silver, because it made him a prick. Well, a bigger prick than normal.

"Ooh! By the way, Silver, what's a drinking game?" I asked, turning to him as he sipped his drink. I had heard of them before, but had never really known what they were.

"Wow, you really _don't_ get out much, do you? A drinking game is where you take a shot at a certain time. Like, if we played 'I Have Never…', if I said I'd done something you hadn't done, I'd have to take a shot." he said. I chose to ignore his first comment.

"Cool, than let's do that! Okay…I have never…Hmm…Ooh! I've never won at Voltorb Flip!" I said, feeling immensely proud of myself for coming up with that one. Silver couldn't have beaten it, because that game was _friggin' impossible_. And if I kept coming up with ones neither of us had done, Silver wouldn't drink anymore! Well, at least until he got bored and quit, but I'd cross that road when I got to it.

Silver set down his glass. "Another one over here."

I could have cried.

"Are you shittin' me?" I yelped. How on Earth had Silver beaten the most impossible of all impossible games? How, I ask? HOW?

"Geez, Lyra." he said, taking his shot. "You really get a potty mouth when you're drunk." He turned the bar stool back to face the counter. It was then that I noticed a sign of how he actually cared about his Pokemon now. I don't think even he noticed it, but when he wasn't speaking, his fingers ran over each of the six Pokeballs attached to his belt, as if ready to call one out if needed.

_~those aren't the only balls he's got by his belt~_

I immediately did an impressive spit take, my face turning bright crimson. Wow…I also had a potty mind when I was drunk, too! For some reason, that fascinating me more than it ought to.

We played 'I Have Never…' for the next hour. The object of the game

_~for me, anyway~_

had slowly changed from 'Keep Silver Sober' to 'beat the bitch at his own game and get him absolutely shitfaced drunk'. I obviously had my priorities straight. Speaking of Silver, his voice broke me out of lala land.

"-yra? I…I th-think we've…we've…" He sighed. "We're done." I would have loved to have gotten up and protested leaving so soon, but as it was I couldn't really make my mouth work right.

"B…b-but…w-we're…not done?" I asked pathetically, holding onto the bar to keep the room from spinning.

"Y-yeah. We're…we're done. But, jus' for fun, les' do one more quets…quess shun. I…I have…never b-been drunker…than I am…r-right _now_!" He seemed extremely pleased by this fact.

"Then…les' go one more!" I cheered, handing him one last drink. He took it with shaky hands, smirking at me. "Shure…whas' one more…gonna do thet…" He slowly tried to figure out how much we'd actually had. " Hell, I dunno…forty others haven't?" he asked, downing it in a quick swallow.

Funny…that's what I was thinking, too.

* * *

><p>DJG: "Just so people are aware, this isn't done yet. I'll try to get another chapter posted soon, but I'm going on vacation this Sunday, and won't be back 'til Friday, and I highly doubt I'll get a chapter done before I go."<p>

Muse: "Cuz you're a SLACKER!"

DJG: "I know, it's true! *sobs*"

Muse: "Reviews are the Johnny to my Depp!"


	2. Silver Hates It Too

DJG: "Sorry for the wait, I was mauled by a rampaging writer's block immediately after I got back, but it's all good, cuz I've got the entire rest of the story planned out now!"

Muse: "Yeah, thanks to me!"

DJG: *rolls eyes*

* * *

><p>When I woke up the next morning, I had no clue where I was. All I knew was, I had a violent, possibly life-threatening hangover. I used my mad ninja skillz to fall gracefully out of the bed I was in, only suffering mild brain damage in the process. After I got up, I managed to drag myself into what I hoped was the bathroom and sang a love song to what I <em>prayed<em> was the toilet.

And then my mind caught up with my semi-drunken thought process.

_~…bed?~_

Why was there a _bed _in the Mauville Game Corner? And _why_ was I sleeping in it? I hadn't started freaking out yet, but I was pretty close to it. I demanded answers. Not really, of course. There was no one else there, except for the TV, which was on, but was set to mute.

Looking around the room, I realized I wasn't even _in_ the Mauville Game Corner anymore! In fact, this looks more like the setup a hotel room might have, only instead of two dinky beds, there was one queen size bed, dominating the tiny room. By the far wall, there was a small worn couch. The wallpaper was brown, cheap, and was peeling in some places. On one side of the room, almost the entire wall was taken up by what I assumed were windows, but I was too afraid of the sun to check.

I left the shades drawn; there was no reason to make myself suffer more than I already was. This whole situation, plus my massive hangover, was not helping my morning any.

_~What if this is Damian's hotel room? Oh God, is this the top floor?~_

Feeling too nauseous to check, my stomach decided my solo was not yet complete, and I sprinted into the bathroom just in time for the second verse. Luckily, I made it, and didn't puke on the floor. Assuming this _was_ Damian's hotel room, the Purple Wonder would probably make me clean it up!

I was beginning to realize I couldn't even remember coming to this hotel. Not checking in, anyway. I had a brief recollection of stumbling inside with someone else, but I couldn't exactly remember who that person was.

_~Man, what happened last night?~_

I could remember Ethan ditching me, but nothing solid after that. Some guy was there, and maybe a girl? I dunno. I'd worry about that later. First things first. I found, to my immense surprise, my bag by the front door of the room. There was another bag there as well, but I ignored it. Pulling my Pokegear from my bag, I found it turned off.

_~That's weird…~_

I _never_ turned off my Pokegear. It made my mom worry if she couldn't get a hold of me at any time, and she'd accuse me of doing inappropriate things behind her back. I'd then retaliate by leaving to go take on the Kanto Gyms and not talking to her the entire time until she apologized before I challenged Blue. Okay, so that happened _once_, but still.

I flipped it on and immediately found myself assaulted by numerous messages from Ethan and my mother. Mom was demanding to know where I was in every message, so I calmed her down by telling her I was with Ethan. I'm pretty damn sure she has this secret dream of us getting married and settling down in the house next to hers and having oodles of grandchildren that she can smother with love and affection…Ew. That mental image _burns_.

Ethan's messages were even more freaked out than my mother's.

_Lyra, where are you? I looked all over the bar, and you weren't there! It's three a.m. right now, call me! _

I flipped to the next message.

_H-hey, it's me again. Where are you? If you're mad at me for ditching you, I'm sorry! Please don't be mad, I don't know what I was thinking! Call me soon, it's ten after three!_

_~Wow, ten whole minutes? How did he manage to wait THAT long?~_

The rest were similar. I ended up not responding to any of them, seeing as most of them were basically asking where I was, and hell, I had no figgin' clue anyway. I finally decided to leave, seeing as there was no reason to stay anymore. Gathering my things together, I decided to make the bed, at least, so the

_~probably underpaid~_

cleaning lady wouldn't have to.

I quickly made the side I had been sleeping on.

_~Since when do they give you so many pillows?~_

It was true, there were a _lot_ of pillows, most of them pushed to the other side of the bed. It didn't surprise me; most of my blankets ended up on that side when I slept in my bed at home. The only thing that was annoying was that I couldn't seem to find the match to a small, red throw pillow that was lying near the headboard.

"Darn it, where is the other pillow…maybe there's just one?" I muttered quietly, reaching out for it. It was probably one of those dinky useless ones that went in the middle of some gigantic spread of decorative pillows that took up half the bed. Right as I was about to touch it, it shifted. Then it let out a groan.

_~Oh my God, my pillow is ALIVE!~_

I backed up in horror as it sat up, and that was when I realized just how badly I had fucked up. I had thought I had made a mistake before, but this could only be described as the world's biggest fuck-up.

The pillow, as you've probably already guessed, was no pillow. It was hair. Crimson red hair, attached to a very familiar head. That head turned and blinked at me with sleepy eyes. "Hn…What's goin' on?" Silver asked confusedly.

And then he actually seemed to realize what was going on.

"Did we-?" he mumbled, wiping sleep from his eyes.

"No. No, God no, absolutely not." I said convincingly, but it sounded more like I was trying to convince myself.

"Are you sure…?" Well, I had learned something new about my rival. It took him a while to fully wake up. It would have been cute if I wasn't freaking out so bad. I hadn't even _considered_ this being a possibility, not even when I had realized he wasn't a throw pillow. God, I was _never_ telling him about that. _NEVER._

"Yes. Well, pretty sure. I think if we would have…you know…uh…we wouldn't be wearing…clothes. Most of the time, you need to be…erm…naked, to…do the deed, right?" I asked, my brain conveniently deciding not to provide me with anything remotely intelligent to say.

"Usually, yeah…well then…uh…" We had both noticed at the same time that he wasn't wearing a shirt. Silver seemed just as embarrassed as I was, something I _never_ got to see. He rubbed the back of his head nervously, but then looked angry. "What happened last night? You know, right?" he demanded. I winced.

"Actually…"

His frown turned into a scowl. "Whatever. I'm leaving." he snapped irritably, getting out of the bed. I handed him the bag that was on the floor, just now figuring it was his. He took it roughly, digging through it. He finally found what he was looking for, a dark navy blue shirt that had red Pokeball symbols on the sleeves. As he tugged it out, a piece of rumpled blue paper and a Pokeball that were loose in the bag fell out too. I quickly grabbed the Pokeball that had rolled towards me and handed to him as soon as he was dressed.

He grunted, but didn't say anything else as he took it, so I took that as my cue to leave. I was halfway out the door when I heard a loud thump, scaring me and making me jump. I whirled around, demanding answers, but froze when I saw his face.

He had the blue piece of paper in his hand, and his expression was one I'd never seen on his face before.

Fear.

"…"

"Silver, what's wrong?"

"…"

I was starting to freak out. What exactly was on that paper that made the mighty, heartless Silver actually show emotions other than anger?

"Silver, say something. You're scaring me."

"…"

"Silver, please!"

And then he spoke.

"…We hereby certify that…on the thirty-first day of the twelfth month, A.D. 2011, Silver Sakaki and Lyra Anne Kiyomi have come t-together…in the sight of God Almighty…"

Oh please no.

"…and men and have been enjoined together in…m-matrimony before witnesses and have set our seal and signature hereupon this certificate as…_proof_ that such a union and ceremony did in fact take place at the location known as Mauville of the Hoenn region."

_~Now I wish the bastard wouldn't have said anything.~_

You know that feeling in the pit of your stomach you get when you know you're totally and fatally screwed? Yeah, I didn't feel that one. I mostly felt the floor meeting my face as I fainted like a total wuss would when confronted with such a situation.

When I woke up, Silver was gone. I didn't blame him. As it was, I was planning on leaving, too. And he'd been 'kind' enough to leave the proof of our fuck up on the nightstand next to the bed. It kind of surprised me I wasn't still on the floor.

The shades were open now, revealing the sun setting. That confused me, until I realized we'd both woken up late, and passing out while hung-over probably didn't do me any favors in the waking up department.

The remaining light shining through the window lit up my dress that I was still wearing. Only, I could have sworn it was blue before…so why was it now a pale green? And the dress I was wearing earlier was strapless, this one had soft green material that was tied around the back of my neck, holding it on. And my other dress didn't have this trim at the bottom, did it?

_~Quit being so damn picky~_

I would have freaked out, had I not been wearing it the first time I woke up. Apparently me and Silver, in our drunken state, had enough time to pick out a wedding dress.

And that was when I broke down.

Immediately sensing my distress, my Pokemon burst from their Pokeballs, even my largest one, Milotic. Meganium nudged me in the leg, whimpering softly, while Skarmory just crowed sadly. Rattata leapt into my lap, and Milotic, who was obscenely cramped in the tiny room, wrapped her large tail around me in an embrace.

And so I sat there, in the dingy hotel room surrounded by my Pokemon, and sobbed like a baby. When I pictured my wedding, it had always seemed so far into the future, and had been in a church, with flowers, all my friends would have come, and I had a beautiful white dress. My husband would have been perfect. My mom would have cried, and I would have been happy.

Instead, my wedding was last night, had been in a bar, with slot machines, the only person there I knew was the groom and Ethan, who for some reason hadn't stopped it, and I had a cocktail dress. My husband was Silver, the most arrogant, egotistical person I knew. My mom would cry, but out of anger and shame instead of happiness and joy.

And I was most definitely not happy.

* * *

><p>Silver returned later, at around two in the morning. I had returned all of my Pokemon except for Meganium, who guarded me, and Rattata, who was sleeping in my arms like a warm teddy bear. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I pretended to be asleep. I couldn't face him right now. How could I? I barely knew anything about him, and suddenly we were married!<p>

He stared at me for a minute, before sighing and taking a pillow from the other side of the bed. Meganium gave him a warning growl but, seeing that he wasn't touching me, fell silent. Silver pulled a small blanket out of his bag and set up a place for himself to sleep on the small couch. He glanced again at Meganium, before releasing his Typhlosion, probably in case Meganium decided to kill him in his sleep. The fire Pokemon immediately yawned and curled in a small ball.

Apparently trusting him anyway, Silver sat down on the couch and the room fell silent, except for the soft sound of Typhlosion breathing. I closed my eyes then, wondering what made him come back. He'd probably forgotten something and then just decided to stay here since it was so late.

That thought flew out the window when I heard sniffling, and it most definitely not me or any of the Pokemon.

I silently turned my head to investigate, and was stunned to see my rival covering his eyes with one hand, shoulders slouched and mouth twisted into a grimace. I couldn't be sure, but I thought I saw tears.

"What the hell did I do?" he muttered quietly.

And, as usual, I pitied him. But there was no way I'd ever tell him that.

His hand fell away, and he closed his eyes, sighing heavily. He sat there quietly for what seemed like hours, and I watched him. I suddenly realized by his breathing pattern and relaxed body, that he had fallen asleep in that position. I internally cursed my caring nature, before quietly slipping out of bed and creeping over to him.

And promptly tripped over Typhlosion.

I was immensely shocked when neither the Pokemon nor its master woke up. The crash must've woken up every other person in the hotel, but Silver must be a heavy sleeper. That also shocked me, seeing as you'd expect the son of Giovanni to sleep light. I carefully moved him into a more comfortable position, but didn't dare cover him with his blanket. It was better for him to think he'd just fallen over. He didn't even twitch during the whole thing, which was kind of funny. Who knew how many people had tried to attack him to get revenge on his father? He must've had good bodyguards, or maybe Giovanni just told everyone he hated his son.

Sometimes I wished Celebi had never revealed to me and Ethan who Silver's family was.

Ethan wasn't bothered by it at all. Realistically, the only time he'd ever seen Silver was when he'd stolen a Pokemon from Professor Elm, so it probably seemed fitting to him. Someday I would have to get those two to meet for real.

_~You will, when you announce your marriage to your friends and family.~_

I needed to puke.

* * *

><p>DJG: "So, we have some SilverXLyra fluff to tide you over until the next chapter, ne? And man, will the next chapter be full of action!"<p>

Muse: "It should be done sometime in the next century."

DJG: "SHUT UP, MUSE!" *throws a bucket of grapefruit at Muse*

Muse: "So, where did Silver and Lyra's last names com from?"

DJG: "Sakaki is Japanese for Giovanni, and Kiyomi is one of the names they considered using for Kris in the original Japanese version. Anne is just cuz it sounds cool."

Muse: "By the way, how is her mom and Ethan going to take it?"

DJG: "I dunno. It seems to be a bit fuzzy. I'm sure some reviews would make it easier to predict, though."

Muse: "Ho."

DJG: *shrugs*


	3. Team Rocket Returns!

**DJG: "I've decided, thanks to…Muse, unfortunately-"**

**Muse: "WHOO!"**

**DJG: "-that I'm going to write some chapters in Lyra's point of view, and some in Silver's. Maybe even in Ethan's, occasionally. Yes, he'll be back soon."**

**Muse: "Now, on with it, writing slave! Mush!" *pulls out whip***

**DJG: DDDDDDDDX *dies* "Be aware, I haven't been ignoring this story! This just took me daaaaaaaaaaaays to write!"**

**Silver POV**

I yawned, stretching out carefully. My internal clock told me it was mid-morning, way later than I normally slept.

_~Feh. Who cares? It's not like I have anything better to do.~_

As I woke up a bit more, I realized the grass I was lying on was more comfortable than it should have been, even with my sleeping bag and blanket. No matter where I slept, there would always be bumps or uneven ground, but not here.

And then I realized I was on a couch.

"What the-!" I sat up quickly, eyes snapping open. Ooh. Bad idea. The light hurt my eyes, and I shielded them quickly, cursing whoever had opened the curtains. I must have checked into a hotel last night, meaning there must be a Gym in this town for me to even bother stopping here.

"Oh, good. You're up. We need to talk." a female voice said, and I looked around in confusion. Who the heck was in my room while I was sleeping? Probably a creep. Oh well, Typhlosion would get them out of here. I didn't even bother answering, I just waited for the fire Pokemon to chase her away.

…

For some reason, he wasn't doing anything.

"Hey, Silver? Don't play games with me, I saw you move! Get your ass up!" the voice snapped irritably.

_~Oh yeah.~_

Lyra abruptly stomped over to the couch and dragged me off of it. I landed in a large pile of Typhlosion, blankets, and Silver. I poked my head out indignantly, blowing hair out of my face. "You _could_ have just asked." I shot back, slowly getting to my feet. What right did she have to tell me when to get up?

"You wouldn't have listened."

Point.

"We need to decide what we're going to tell people. They'll freak out if they found out we got married in a bar while we were drunk!" Lyra said frantically. She nervously fiddled with a Pokeball, which I assumed was Meganium's, seeing as the grass Pokemon was no longer in the room.

"Why do we even have to tell them? Realistically, we could probably hide it." I said, pointing out the obvious.

"Because they have a right to know!" she shrieked, before calming down a bit.

"This morning, I talked to a lawyer. We can't get divorced until we've been married for a year. Since we got…into this…in Hoenn, we have to follow the Hoenn laws for marriage, even when we go back to Johto." Lyra said, telling me what I already suspected. Last night, I had done the same thing, only the lawyer I met with was my father's, and therefore knew more about loopholes in the law then anybody. Unfortunately, he refused to talk to me, since he knows my father hates me and that I was involved with the person who kicked Team Rocket out of Azalea and the Radio Tower.

"And they would be…?" I asked, arching an eyebrow. I was from Johto, for crying out loud. I had no idea what the _traffic laws _in Hoenn were, let alone the laws for something as trivial as marriage!

"We, technically, have to live in the same residence, unless one of us has a job that requires us to move around a lot." she said, as if reading out of a textbook.

"That'd be you."

"Not unless I have a challenger, which hasn't happened for months. And that's why we can't hide it. We also have to provide evidence to a representative of some fancy organization called the SPPA that this is a legitimate marriage." she said, tapping the Pokeball on her knee. I noticed she had changed out of the dress she was wearing before, which was great, because I was pretty sure she had worn it to the bar in the first place.

Wait, what was the group called?

"SPPA? That's the Society for the Prevention of Pokemon Abuse…why would they need to investigate a marriage? That's stupid!" I exclaimed. I didn't feel the need to tell her that I knew all about the SPPA from my father's work. If she disliked me now, just imagine how much she'd hate me if she found out who my father was. Although, given my last name, I wouldn't be surprised if she figured it out on her own.

"Oh sure. Ask me! Like I'm gonna know…" she grumbled, shooting me a glare. I rolled my eyes at her and turned away, crossing my arms and staring pointedly at the wall.

"Fine. So, what? We have to go back to Johto soon, obviously." I said, tapping my foot distractedly.

"I was thinking…" She stopped, chewing her lip nervously. She rolled the Pokeball in her hands across her lap subconsciously, looking troubled. Not knowing what to say, I just said the first thing on my mind.

"That's a shocker." Crap. I thought I outgrew that habit.

To my surprise, she just laughed, before looking at me seriously. "Yeah. Sure it is. Anyway, I was thinking…maybe, if you…y'know, wouldn't be bothered by it, we could…erm…tell everyone we just got…engaged…so then they wouldn't wonder why they weren't invited to the wedding!" She started panicking as I raised an eyebrow. "I can understand if you don't want to! It was just an idea! Just forget it, okay?"

I leaned back on the couch, thinking the idea over. It was simple, easy, except for the fact that we were already married, relatively painless, and even better, kept Lyra's mother from castrating me with a shovel for getting Lyra drunk. Because Lyra totally didn't start it. Or did she? I honestly didn't remember anything from the night before, except for one hazy memory.

_I…I have…never b-been drunker…than I am…r-right _now_!_

I couldn't even remember who had said it. It could have been me, Lyra, or some other random person at the bar. Who knew?

"Fine." I said, startling Lyra so much she dropped her Pokeball, Meganium bursting from it and looking confused. Typhlosion was looking at me like I was speaking Korean. "I mean, come on…what could go wrong? It'll be simple and keeps us out of trouble. For now…" I murmured the last part under my breath.

"Oh…o-okay then! Let's do this! We'll just tell everyone we've been dating secretly…" she said, bouncing in her seat as she planned how we'd deceive the entire Johto region.

Which brought me to another topic.

"How is Johto going to react to their current Champion getting engaged to some redhead nobody? Usually Champions don't get married, and when they do, it's to another Champion or to a Gym Leader, at least." I said, waiting to see how she'd react.

"Who cares? It's my business who I marry, not theirs! And if they don't like it, they can challenge me and try to take my title! And even then I'll _still_ marry whoever the hell I want! Let 'em try to stop me!" she finished her rant and looked quite proud of herself. I rolled my eyes. Sure she talked big now, but wait until she actually had to put those words to the test. I'd bet anything she'd chicken out at the last second. Oh well. It wasn't my problem. She was the one so worried about what her friends would think.

"Okay then."

BREAK

**Lyra's POV**

The trip back to Johto was relatively uneventful, except for Silver's occasional complaints about how we should have just flown back on Skarmory and Crobat instead of taking the ferry, but I snapped at him to shut up after two solid hours of whining. He knew no Pokemon could fly that far without fainting. Or, at least I _hoped_ he did. It still annoyed me, regardless. For some reason, my nerves were _really_ frazzled today.

Finally, we got off the S.S. Beta, which had taken us from Slateport to Vermillion City. We walked in silence to Saffron City, and then got in a fight with the conductor of the Magnet Train because he refused to let Silver on without a pass. I then had to pull out the 'I'm a Champion, so you have to do whatever I say!' card until he caved in and let us on.

After that, I fell asleep on the train. Joyous. Silver didn't even bother waking me up, Meganium ended up doing it. That's not to say that he wouldn't have done it eventually, it just kind of pissed me off anyway.

Once we arrived in Goldenrod, we got on our flying Pokemon and flew to New Bark Town. It would have been _fabulous_ if Skarmory hadn't decided to fly directly into a rain cloud, completely soaking me in the process. After bitching him out for eight solid minutes, we landed outside Elm's Lab, wordlessly recalling our Pokemon.

"Okay. Now that I'm frickin' wet, you'll look so much better in comparison. Let's go." I grumbled, stomping towards my house and shivering as a violent burst of wind chilled me to the bone.

And then I was abruptly pulled back.

"Grr…Silver! What the-!" I gaped at him, and then at his jacket, which he had silently held out to me.

"Just put it on. If you get sick, I'll have to deal with it later." he muttered, looking away with a disinterested look.

I took it from him awkwardly, pulling it on and zipping it up. It smelled like smoke and…cave. Oh, come on! If you traveled as much as I do, you'd know what a cave smells like, too! We both slowly headed for my house…and certain doom.

BREAK

"Honey! _Where_ have you been? I woke up and you weren't here! I got your message that you were with Ethan, but _he_ showed up here asking where _you_ were, so _you_ were _lying_, missy!"

Wow, good to see you too, Mom.

"Mom, I only came here to visit. For a week. That was two months ago. I think it's time I get back to Indigo Plateau, don't you?" I said firmly. My mom was under the impression that the Champion lived in Indigo Plateau, constantly waiting for someone to get past the Elite Four to challenge me. Gee, I _wonder_ how she got _THAT _idea?

"I know, but honey, ever since your father died, I've been so lonely here, and I really do appreciate your company here, you know that, sweetie." She fluttered her eyelashes and I felt my resolve crumbling like it had the first seven times she'd done this. Curse my ability to give a shit!

"Maybe you should remarry." Silver spoke for the first time, causing my mom to look at him for the first time. She looked startled by his blunt statement, but not angry.

"I've never actually thought about it before…but who are you? You're certainly too handsome to be from around here, or I would have remembered you!"

Silver blushed furiously, and looked away to try and hide it. "Hmph!"

I laughed, causing him to blush even more. "Mom, this is Silver. He's a Pokemon Trainer, just like me."

Mom suddenly looked thoughtful. "Silver…wasn't that the name of that person who stole a Cyndaquil all those years ago?"

Oh damn.

"No, I think that guy's name was Faggot**(1)**."I said, covering for him quickly. I didn't think my mom would actually remember him from eight years ago!

"Faggot? Really? That's an odd name." Mom said curiously. She _really_ didn't get out much. Hell, if I called her a stupid bitch, she'd ask when I learned a new language. Ooh, that's a good excuse!

"Yeah, it's…Japanese."

…

We stood there in awkward silence for a second, before another cold gust of wind seemed to snap Mom out of it.

"Oh dear, you two are probably freezing! Come in, come in…and Lyra, why are you all _wet?"_

We stepped inside quickly, glad to be out of the cold. Silver looked around, and inwardly I cringed. It was probably nothing like the mansion he probably grew up in. I just prayed to God Almighty that he wouldn't say anything to make Mom an-

"Geez, how many random Eevee knick-knacks do you need?"

-gry. Never mind…

To my immense surprise, Mom just sighed sadly. "Not as many as I have, Silver, dear. I've just always liked Eevee, but my parents never let me have one, because they were afraid of Pokemon. That's the _only_ reason I let Lyra take the Pokemon League challenge…because my parents never let me. But anyway, sit down, you two!"

Are you fucking kidding me, Mom? How come you never told me any of this, but you tell this random guy your only daughter brings home as he's mocking your sense of decoration?

FML.

"Hmph. Your parents obviously aren't here now…why not get one anyway? It's not like they can do anything about it, you're an adult."

Mom perked up. "Silver, you're absolutely right! I heard from Professor Elm that they had some Eevee in the Celadon City Game Corner for 3333 coins, but as it's 50 coins for 1000 Poke, I'll never be able to afford it. But enough of this depressing talk! To keep things simple, just call me Mom, alright dear? Everyone else does. Now then…Just how are you friends with Lyra?"

Uh oh.

"Actually, that was the reason we came. We're-" he started to say, before I slapped my hand over his mouth. I knew the best way to handle this situation, and the fastest way to tell the entire town, if not world.

"We came to tell you a secret. A really important secret, so you _can't_ tell _anyone_, no matter _what_, okay Mom?"

I saw her eyes gleam and knew the announcement of our engagement would all over Johto in half an hour.

"Silver and I are engaged."

Silver abruptly fell out of his chair as my mom let out the highest pitched and most drawn-out 'squee' the world has ever, and probably _will_ ever, behold.

"Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! My little baby is growing up! Engaged, already! Oh my gosh! Your father would be so proud! Congratulations, both of you! Oh my gosh, this is so great!"

"Fantastic." Silver muttered, getting back into his chair. I hadn't fallen because, sadly, I was used to it.

"Remember Mom, this has to stay top secret. We're having a party tonight to announce it anyway, if it's okay for us to have it here! We're inviting everybody to tell them, okay?" I said, ignoring the look of horror Silver shot at me when I mentioned a party.

"Oh, of _course _it's okay! You go right ahead and invite _anyone_ you want to! Squeeeee, this is just _so_ exciting!"

"Will you excuse us?" Silver asked as he stood up and grabbed my arm, dragging me out of the room. As soon as we were in the kitchen, he went Super Saiyan.

"Why didn't you tell me you were going to have a party? What's the point? And did you even think ahead enough to realize you don't have party stuff, or music, or booze? This is going to suck! What were you thinking!"

I blinked at him after he finished his rant. "Okay. I didn't tell you there would be a party because I knew you'd freak out like this!"

"I am _not_ freaking out!"

I ignored him and kept talking. "The point is that we can tell the whole region in the fastest and simplest way possible."

He snorted. "And that would be…?"

"Easy. Invite the Gym Leader of each town. That way, they can spread the news and townspeople won't find out by rumor, so they'll be more likely to believe it. And as for party stuff, Ethan can help us get it. Green will help out, too. He can bring the booze, since my mom has a fan girl crush on him and in her eyes he can do no wrong." I said, smirking triumphantly at his expression.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're inviting Kanto Gym Leaders, too?" he asked, eye twitching a bit.

"Well, duh! It's not like I'm only awesome in Johto! Now, quit your whining and call Lance and Clair." I said as he began to protest. "Don't even start with me, Silver! I know you've been training at the Dragon's Den! From what Lance told me a few months ago, you've been there every Tuesday and Thursday! He also said you're a lot better than the last time we battled."

He looked away, crossing his arms and muttering under his breath how it was so unfair that Tuesday and Thursday had to exist.

"Maybe we could battle during the party. See who's better." I said, knowing he'd jump at the chance to embarrass me in front of every Gym Leader in Johto and Kanto. Too bad for him he wouldn't, and even if he did, the Gym Leaders and I were friends, they wouldn't care if I lost or not. And, contrary to popular belief, if Silver beat me here, he wouldn't win my title. He had to challenge the Elite Four, beat them all in a row, and then beat me for that.

"Hmph. Fine. But you'd better be prepared to lose!" Silver said, standing up and pulling his Pokegear out of his pocket. He began to dial, and I left the room to give him some privacy. A few minutes later, and he joined me in the living room to listen to my mom continue freaking out.

"Oh, I can't wait for the party! I can tell people then, right? This is going to be so much fun!" I seriously doubted my mom even noticed we had left the room at all.

"Yes, Mom. You can tell people. But not until after we announce it!" I said firmly, ignoring her deflated look.

BREAK

Roughly two hours later, everything was ready. I had invited the Gym Leaders, Professor Oak, and I had even sent Skarmory to try to get to Mt. Silver to invite Red, but my Pokemon had returned alone. I honestly don't think it was because Red didn't want to come, but that my Pokemon couldn't made it up the mountain by itself.

Oh well. Maybe I could get Silver to climb up there with me sometime next month and tell him. Whaaaat? If he's gonna choose to live on top of a friggin' mountain, he deserves to be the last to know!

Silver had, per to my request, invited Clair and Lance. Despite his claims that he just had their numbers in case he wanted to battle them, the dragon users both greeted him warmly. Too warmly.

"Nice to see you again, little red!" Clair cried, giving him a noogie while my jaw decided to check out the view from the ground. Silver seemed to notice this, because he slipped out of her hold and looked away, huffing indignantly. Lance rolled his eyes, but said nothing.

"Hello again, Lyra. It's been awhile since we've seen you. How have you been?" Lance asked, breaking the awkward silence. Or maybe it was just awkward to me. Oh well.

"It's been rough. 'Course, I've been with Silver throughout most of it, so who can blame me?" I said, snickering at the outraged glare I felt _burning_ into the back of my head. Lance chuckled (Chuckled? Who the hell says 'chuckled'!) and turned towards Silver.

"And how have you been, cousin?" he asked as my brain malfunctioned and died. Because noooo, he wasn't talking to Clair. He was talking to Silver. _MotherfuckingSilver. _

"Uhhh…did I miss something? I could have sworn you just said Silver was your _cousin…"_ I said, feeling dumb as Clair and Lance both gave me looks of surprise, and then turned to Silver, who was purposely glaring at a Doduo decoration, his arms crossed defiantly.

"You mean-" the dragon relatives began. Oh, _God. _Not _this _again.

"-she doesn't know?" "You didn't tell her?" they finished, ruining the whole psychic-twin thing I thought they were gonna pull off. Good. That woulda freaked me out, I get enough of that from Tate and Lisa. **(2)**

"What don't I know, Silver?" I growled, turning to him. This sounded like some serious shizz, and he didn't even tell me? We're freaking _engaged! _Who cares if it was accidental, it still counts! What the hell!

"…" He said nothing, but from his facial expressions, I could tell he had entered 'Oh Shit!' mode. Well, when you were constantly battling a guy who just stood there and _glared _the whole time, you had to learn to read that stuff, or you wouldn't know if you'd kicked his ass or just barely scraped a win. 'Oh Shit!' mode was when he was down to his last Pokemon, it had only half its health, and I had the type advantage. And a bag full of Max Revives and Hyper Potions.

And as I was staring at him intently, trying to read his mind, I suddenly did.

"The Dragon Clan Leader adopted you because he found out your dad is Giovanni and he wanted to help you lose some of your anger and know what it was like to have a real family so you could form a better bond with your Pokemon and not be such an angsty bastard constantly and annoy the crap out of your very patient and super awesome Genger?" I squeaked, having no idea where half of that just came from.

Silver turned to glare at his Gengar, who was giggling as it stopped using Psychic on me**(3)**, covering its mouth with its hands. No wonder I had said all of that.

"You ratted me out, you bitch!" he yelled, as he began chasing the poor Pokemon around the room. I then had to stop and evaluate what I had just said.

_~Oh, yeah. I'm supposed to be surprised about Giovanni.~_

I expertly began coming up with a bunch of well-thought-over reactions to the information I just heard. I was gonna _lie, _and I was gonna do it _good._

Key word is 'was'.

"I already know who your father is." I said, shattering any plans of lying my way out of this awkward situation. I was pretty damn sure Silver was only make such a big deal out of his Gengar telling me because he had no freaking idea what else to do. I sighed. He was such a _girl, _sometimes.

Awkward silence.

All three of them paused and looked at me, even Gengar.

"Y-you did? How? Wait…I don't want to know. Great. Friggin' fantastic. Now you can tell everybody how much of a loser I am." He snapped, grabbing Gengar around the middle while it was distracted. He stood, reaching for Crobat's Pokeball. "I'm outta here." I had no doubts he would walk right out of the party and disappear for God knows how long. And I was not gonna let that happen. It took me five years to find him the last time, and I found him at a _bar_. No. Nuh uh. Not part of the plan.

I reached out and grabbed him by the back of his jacket.

"Oh, _hell_ no! You think you can just walk out of our friggin' engagement party and leave me here to face the thunder while you go run off to go hide in the closet and be a damn emo all your life? No! Big deal, I don't _care _who your father is. You're _you_, not _him_. Now that the sob fest is over, can we make the damn announcement already, and then go drink a couple beers?" I snapped, throwing him into a lawn chair as I bitched him out.

Silver's face was bright red, and at first I didn't understand why. Then I realized how quiet it was. Every single party guest and Gym Leader was staring at me. Whoops. Looks like there's no need for the announcement now. I could still use those beers, though.

"You two…are…_holy shit._" Lt. Surge said, breaking the silence. I think he was the only person that didn't know. My mom, I noticed, had told every single person beforehand what they were there for, probably reminding them, "And this is our little secret!"

Oh, wait. Apparently not Ethan, as he just collapsed in the back of the crowd. Meh. I was actually kind of hoping for more of that type of reaction. This whole engagement is just so 'Scandalous!', as Whitney would say, it makes me wanna laugh. Speaking of Whitney, she just fell over, too!

Wait a sec.

I know I saw Mom telling her, because I had laughed at her reaction-she had gone pale white and started stammering out gibberish.

Something was wrong.

BREAK

**Silver's POV**

Right as I was attempting to process the fact that she knew-

_~she knew and didn't care~_

-I noticed the Gym Leaders and other people here begin to collapse. Now, I knew I wasn't exactly the best guy you'd want for your friend to marry, but come on, this was just insulting.

And then I heard it. I covered my ears quickly, yelling for everyone else to do the same. Mom had, for some reason, come to stand behind me. I guess it made sense, since she had no Pokemon, but come on! She's surrounded by highly trained Pokemon professionals. Why pick the random guy who might suck to hide behind?

Anyway. Back to the current problem. The noise was Grasswhistle. Not only does it make your Pokemon fall asleep, but depending on what the Trainer's intent is, it can put the Trainer to sleep as well.

Only a few Gym Leaders had the sense to listen to me, and they did as I had asked, covering their ears and backing away from the source of the sound, which was coming from the edge of town.

However, that was only where the Grasswhistle was coming from. Leaping from the tops of buildings came around forty Team Rocket Grunts. The thing I found odd was how they landed without a sound. They had to have been training, not just their Pokemon, but physically as well. Each of them grabbed a Pokeball from their belts and glared menacingly at the Gym Leaders who were still conscious.

_~Oh God. They found me.~_

I shook away that thought, cursing my childish behavior. Now was not the time to be afraid. Team Rocket was, realistically, probably not after me. I may be their leader's son, but they don't think much of me. I'm not a Champion, and I don't run a Gym, or research Pokemon. So, therefore, they don't see me as a threat.

Big mistake.

I reached for my faithful starter, Typhlosion, but then stopped. Mom wasn't stupid. If a redhead kid stole a Cyndaquil eight years ago, and suddenly your daughter comes home with a redheaded nobody and he's got a Typhlosion, wouldn't you be just a little bit suspicious? Especially if they had the same name? Oh, wait. Lyra said the thief's name was Faggot. Nice.

Anyway. Time to focus, Silver. Instead of giving myself away, I decided on Gengar, who was glaring at Team Rocket and wasn't paying attention to me. Grasswhistle wouldn't affect him as much. "Hey, get ready!" I snapped. Gengar turned around and promptly gave me the finger, but he obeyed me and got into a fighting stance.

Lyra stood beside me, pulling a Pokeball from her belt and pushing Mom behind us. She said something, but since my ears were covered I couldn't hear her. She seemed to realize this and pulled a Pokeball out of her bag, rather than from her belt, smirking. Must be a new Pokemon of hers.

I turned quickly to see who was still conscious. Ethan was down, as were the Professors and all of the Johto Gym Leaders, except for Clair. Who I still was not used to calling my big sister. It was kind of odd having her be mad I didn't tell people about the _adoption_, when my _biological _sister, Ariana, told me _not _to tell people we were related.

Anyway.

As for Kanto Gym Leaders, the only ones still awake were Green, Sabrina, and Erika. "I love Grasswhistle!" the grass type Gym Leader said dreamily, spinning lazily in a circle. "But now's not the time for it. It's ruining the party. Go, Victreebel!" That was when I noticed Erika didn't even have her ears covered.

_~I guess a grass type Gym Leader __would__ have heard a Grasswhistle enough times to be immune to its effects.~_

Sabrina glared at Team Rocket. "Alakazam, put a soundproof shield around us now!" The Psychic Pokemon obeyed, allowing us to temporarily uncover our ears.

Ignoring her, I locked eyes with Green, who had apparently decided to try and protect those affected by Grasswhistle. He covered his mouth with one hand and pretended to cough while saying, "We need to lure Team Rocket away from the town! Any ideas?"

Damn, he was good. He was covering his mouth in case anyone in Team Rocket could read lips. Then again, he had done this before.

I made sure not to cover my own mouth when I spoke. "Alright! Green's still a little weak from that cold, everybody! He didn't bring any of his Pokemon with him, either, so his job is going to be to wake up everyone else, alright?"

Green's eyes widened as he caught on to my plan. He would pretend to wake everyone else up, and when Sabrina put down the shield, Team Rocket would think he was the weakest link and go after him. And I'm sure he'd have something to say about that. Violently.

"Lyra! Did you bring that super-rare new Pokemon of yours to show off?" I asked again, loudly. Dear God I hoped she knew what we were doing. Then again, she wasn't stupid.

"Yeah! I brought Lugia! Too bad it's part water and is weak against grass! That's what Team Rocket mostly has, right? Grass and poison?" Lyra asked. "Oh, well! I'll just use its only flying move, Aeroblast! It only has 5 PP, but it'll have to work!"

Oh my God, we are so freaking devious.

"Uh, guys? This is all well and good, but Alakazam can't keep the shield up much longer!" Sabrina said. This was a perfect way to psych out the Rockets! Now all we had to do is keep it up for a few more seconds until our plan is completely ready, and then we'll-

-Alakazam let out a sad cry, and the shield went down. "Yeah, I was serious." Sabrina muttered as everything went to hell around us.

Okay. Make shit up as we go along. Good plan.

Thankfully, everything that we had come up with before the shield collapsed was going according to plan. They had quit using Grasswhistle because there was no chance of us being taken by surprise anymore. The Rockets that went for Green were thrown back as his Pidgeot made her first appearance of the night. "Whaaaa! I thought he didn't have any Pokemon!" One of them yelped as Pidgeot's Whirlwind knocked them backwards.

Those who attacked Lyra with Poison/Grass types expecting Lugia were met with Lyra's newest Pokemon- a fiery Arcanine that liked to use Extremespeed. Translation- it was freaking _fast. _And even better, it was super accurate when firing off Embers and Fire Blasts.

This was great. I hadn't been in a fight with a group of Rockets this size since I had tried to run away when I was seven. My father had talked to me for a few minutes about things I couldn't even remember now, and then had left. I thought I was in the clear until I realized he had sent an entire platoon of his best Grunts (and my sister) to bring me back. Luckily, I got away, but I had to leave my first ever Pokemon behind.

But enough of that. That's in the past.

Green, Lyra, and Sabrina had done their parts. It was my turn. "Crobat, let's go!" I cried, leaping on my bat Pokemon. Erika and Clair released their own Pokemon and began battling Team Rocket. "Silver, be careful!" Clair called as her Dragonair tied four Rockets together and began smacking them upside the head with his tail.

Mom, realizing her only form of protection was gone, ran to the nearest person and pulled one of his Pokeballs off his belt. "Sorry, Ethan! I hope you can forgive me! I'll give it back to you later!" she said, throwing it cautiously. Teddiursa appeared, smiling up at her.

"O-okay, now what moves does a Teddiursa know?" she asked nervously. She was paying so much attention to the bear cub Pokemon, she didn't notice the Rocket sneaking up behind her with an Arbok, ready to attack.

"Teddiursa is a normal type, Mom! Think Eevee!" I said, ducking under a Koffing that tried to hit me. I flew lower to the ground, just to be safe. I saw her eyes light up and knew it had been the right thing to say.

"Teddiursa, Tackle!" she cried, the bear Pokemon obeying her even though she wasn't his trainer. It must be low-level. The Arbok squeaked in surprise and reared back, the Rocket that owned it snarling. "Good, now Scratch! Aim for its eyes!" Within a few moves, Mom had the Rocket beat.

Good. One less thing to worry about. I turned my attention to leading the Rockets out of town. So far, it was working. I had at least half of the Rockets who hadn't been beat by the others following me. I turned to check how everyone else was doi-

I was suddenly rolling along the ground as Crobat was knocked out of the sky by a black blur. "Silver!" I heard Clair scream.

_~Ow ow ow **ow**.~_

Crobat screeched as we came to a sudden, jarring halt. I winced, trying to move, but instantly regretting it. It hurt too much. That was a bad fall.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" a very familiar voice said icily. It wasn't the voice itself that scared me, it was how close it was. Too close. Standing over me. Not good.

The voice kept talking, but the dots dancing across my vision made it hard to pay attention. Crap. I can't pass out now. The others still need me to distract the rest of the Rockets. I reached for the one Pokemon I knew could end this fight, but my fingers fumbled the Pokeball and it rolled out of my reach. _Shit. _Oh, wait, I found it! But I had wasted my remaining strength by dropping it, and no longer had the ability to throw it.

_~I guess you'll have to do this without me…~_

A few seconds later, I let my head hit the ground and stopped moving.

BREAK

**Lyra's POV**

"Silver!" Clair screamed. A black Pokemon moving too fast to see clearly had just stuck Crobat directly in the side, throwing it to the ground with Silver pinned beneath him. Their momentum carried them about twenty more feet along the ground. They would have gone farther if there hadn't been that tree there. They hit it hard and didn't move.

_~Oh, God.~_

A sick sense of dread was settling in the pit of my stomach. Erika, Green, Sabrina, and Mom looked up in surprise at Clair's shriek. It took milliseconds for Clair to mount Dragonair and Green to climb on Pidgeot, but they had two different targets in mind. The Viridian Gym Leader rushed at the Pokemon who had attacked Silver, while Clair went towards her fallen little brother. Neither succeeded.

The black blur darted under Pidgeot when it realized it was being cornered, diving directly under her wing. Green turned sharply to follow it, but suddenly found himself falling as well. The blur had clipped the feathers on Pidgeot's right wing, and no bird can fly with only one wing. Pidgeot let out a squawk as they hit the ground. In a flash, Team Rocket had thrown a net over the Gym Leader and his Pokemon, trapping them underneath while Green glared daggers at them and struggled to escape.

Clair's path was cut off when she collided in midair with an invisible wall a mere four feet from Silver. Reflect. Damn. She groaned angrily, slipping off her Pokemon and recalling it.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" a cold voice asked. My shock wore off suddenly, and was replaced with hot, boiling fury.

"Ariana!" I hissed, hand instinctively twitching towards the Pokeballs at my waist. I thought that bloody bitch had disappeared after the whole Radio Tower incident. I guess not.

"Why, hello there Lyra. It's been awhile. How have you been? Ruined the lives of any other families lately?" the redhead asked, snarling as the blur, her Murkrow, landed on her outstretched arm.

"You! You were the one who attacked him!" Clair snarled, lifting herself up onto her hands and knees.

Ariana's nose wrinkled when she saw Clair. "Oh, yes. You're my replacement. He could've done better than you if he was really so desperate for a family."

Clair's eyes filled with confusion and anger. "Replacement? What the hell are you talking about?"

I stepped forward to help the dragon-user to her feet. "Ariana. She's Silver's biological sister." I snarled. "More like the family dog." The Rockets that had fallen for Green and Silver's trap now separated us from Erika and Sabrina.

Ariana laughed as Clair's frown turned venomous. "Ha! That's a laugh, coming from you, Lyra! Talk about trash! Now, my father _had_ instructed me to kill everyone here, but I think I'll have some fun, first! There's no point in killing what doesn't fight back!" she said, tapping Silver's arm with the toe of her boot.

My eyes narrowed. If humans could do Pokemon moves, right now, I would be doing Rage. "Rattata, now!" I yelled, and suddenly, my favorite purple rat leapt out from under the ground on Ariana's side of the invisible barrier. He had also apparently decided Ariana's ankle looked yummy. Rule one: never underestimate the common Pokemon that everyone is sick of. Silver's Crobat makes a good example, and so does Rattata. Now then…"Hyper Fang!" I commanded. Ariana screamed obscenities and swatted wildly at Rattata.

"Murkrow! Kill the rat!" she shrieked. But, before the bird could move, I saw Sabrina give me a wave out of the corner of my eye. "Arcanine, stop her! Sabrina got rid of the barrier!"

My faithful dog Pokemon lunged forward, driving Murkrow back and snapping at it. I reached for my Skarmory, knowing if Murkrow took flight we'd have no chance of bringing it down.

Clair, quick as a fox, released her two Dragonairs and leapt into the fray as the Team Rocket members began attacking again. Erika giggled as one lunged at her with a knife, easily sidestepping and giving him a nerve-pinch in the elbow that caused him to fall over, immobile. Sabrina used telekinesis to lift four of them into the air at once and throw them into their comrades at roughly 35 mph.

"Vileplume, Stun Spore!" Ariana demanded, succeeding in freeing herself from Rattata's Hyper Fang.

_~Oh, __shit__!~_

I didn't even suspect Ariana had a Pokemon hiding behind the tree Silver had hit. I had no time to react or shout out a warning before I couldn't move. Clair reared backwards and managed to avoid the attack when she saw me freeze. Lucky her.

Ariana sent out her final Pokemon, smirking. Apparently she didn't think too much of Clair's abilities. Her Arbok swung its tail in a wide ark. At first I didn't understand, but when Clair let out a yell of frustration and covered her eyes, I got it. Arbok had blown the leftover Stun Spire into Clair's eyes, rendering her blind. It then darted forward faster than the eye could see, wrapping both of Clair's Dragonair together and squeezing while I tried in vain to move to help her.

Erika and Sabrina were busy finishing off the remaining Rockets. Green was still fighting to get out of the net, which was probably covered in Stun Spore or poison to make escaping nearly impossible. Clair was blind. I was immobilized, and Silver was unconscious…or worse.

There was no one to help.

And suddenly, Lance was there, my mom right behind him with a smile of triumph on her face.

_~Is my mom actually being useful for once? Waking up Lance? Wow, this is a shocker!~_

The Dragon user was furious, that much was easy to see. Even Ariana looked wary of him. With his cape billowing out behind him and his normally polite demeanor completely nonexistent, he looked like he wanted to kill people. Mainly, Ariana.

"Clair, remember that technique we've been practicing? Do it now."

The blue haired girl nodded, getting to her feet and grabbing a Pokemon off of her belt. They must have practiced this a lot for her to do it without being able to see. Each of them released a Gyarados and stood back.

"Hah! You think those overgrown lizards will last long on land? They're out of their element!" Ariana shrieked wildly, but stepping backwards at the same time.

The two blue beasts roared ferociously at her in response. Suddenly, a flash of red light dragged my attention from Clair and Lance, and over to Silver. He had managed to get to his feet with the support of his Crobat and the tree they had hit. In his hand was a Pokeball, and that was the source of the red light.

Oh damn.

I'd know that Pokeball anywhere, even if it had been eight years since the last time I'd seen it. There weren't many Master Balls out there to get it confused with. Unfortunately, the Pokemon I had caught with it was so violent and wild, not even I could control it. I couldn't even weaken it enough for a normal Pokeball to work, which is why I had to use my only Master Ball to catch it.

I was planning on giving it to Lance, but something made me give it to Silver, even though he knew next to nothing about dragons back then. He had taken it in his typical manner, mocking me for being too weak to handle it. He was a little thrown off when I openly agreed with him.

I thought he had gotten rid of it, but apparently he couldn't resist the allure of having the world's only known red Gyarados on his team.

To my surprise, Lance didn't look all that surprised to see it. Clair just seemed amused, and I knew if her eyes had been open, they would have been glowing from Ariana's reaction.

"Is that-? The failed experiment? How the hell did it get here?" She looked around nervously, seeing the Grunts losing to the two Kanto Gym Leaders. She was outnumbered, even if Green and I were incapable of fighting. Didn't mean my Pokemon couldn't attack, though.

Rattata leaped for Murkrow, while Arcanine targeted Vileplume. Ariana hissed, recalling both of them. "Proton! Petrel! Get out here and help me!" I was immensely annoyed when Proton leapt out of the window of _my _room! _My_ fucking bedroom! He had been hiding out in _my _room for God knows how long! What the hell! Petrel came strolling out of Professor Elm's lab with a Pokeball in his hand.

"No need to yell. I got rather bored of waiting, and decided to 'liberate' one of the Pokemon in the PC. I'm sure you'll be interested in it." Petrel said, smirking. Oh _hell_ no. That Pokemon was either mine, or Ethan's, and let me tell you, we've both got a legendary in there. If Team Rocket got their filthy hands on either of them…

Proton yawned lazily. "Good for you. Our little Champion's been holding out on us, apparently, because I found one, too," He pulled a Pokeball from his waist, snickering. "Finders keepers, after all!"

Silver growled angrily. "Erika, Sabrina! Get away from Team Rocket!" They did, Erika leaping into a tree, and Sabrina floating above my house. While they were doing that, Clair and Lance both jumped back, far away from their Gyarados. Lance carefully pulled me away from them while Clair did the same for Green.

"Dos, Hydro Pump!" Lance commanded, once we were at a safe distance. The large dragon let loose with an insanely large blast of water, soaking Team Rocket and their Pokemon and leaving them standing in a small lake.

"Now, Gyara! Twister!" Clair yelled. Her Gyarados, which was noticeably smaller in size compared to Lance's or Silver's, began to spin above Team Rocket in a rapid circle. "How is it flying?" Ariana demanded, shielding her face from the intense wind. None of the Rockets seemed to notice the water being picked up by the enormity of the wind and spun around as well. A tsunami.

"And now, Aka! Ice Beam!" Silver yelled, the wind whipping his hair around wildly. I would have laughed at the unoriginal nickname of his Gyarados**(4)**, but now was not the time.

The red dragon lifted itself into the air, a large beam of light growing in its mouth, when suddenly-

Gyara yanked herself away from the tsunami right before Aka let the Ice Beam go. "Triple Dragon Crystal Tsunami!" the three of them yelled as the world went white. When the light cleared, I blinked in shock.

_~Holy SHIT!~_

There was now a seventh story building in the middle of my town. Except, oh wait, it was made of ice, and was filled with around forty or more of my greatest enemies.

Great engagement present, Silver.

My happy thoughts were interrupted as he suddenly collapsed, his Crobat letting out a cry of fear as it kept him from hitting the ground.

Oh, no.

**DJG: "Ohemgee! Silver! What will happen to you now?"**

**Muse: "You should know, you wrote it!" **

**DJG: "Hell, I don't even know what's gonna happen!"**

**Muse: "Long chapter is long."**

**DJG: "Too bad that doesn't mean 'Good chapter is good'."**

**(1) I only added this because nearly everyone I've talked to named their rival in GSC or HGSS Faggot so I thought it would be kinda funny. I guess not, if you actually had to read this to get the joke.**

**(2) I realize they're Hoenn Gym Leaders, but I'm assuming the Champion of Johto and Kanto would know other Gym Leaders, too!  
><strong>

**(3)I know Gengar is a Ghost Pokemon, but according to the internet, he can indeed learn Psychic. Lucky bastard, I wanna be Psychic!  
><strong>

**(4)Aka is Japanese for red, as in, the color. Seeing as Silver wouldn't appear the type to give his Pokemon nicknames, his first attempt would probably suck. Thus this joke.**


	4. Recovery and the Battle

**DJG: "And to start us out, something completely different." *cough Green'sPOV cough cough* On a completely unrelated note, I think a good theme song for Silver would be 'Hand of Sorrow' by Within Temptation."**

**Muse: "And since she just realized she forgot to do it in the first three chapters, the disclaimer. We own nothing except the few OCs in here, the plotline, and a copy of Soul Silver. So don't sue us or I'll eat you."**

**DJG: O.o "Okay then, Muse…And by the way, for those wondering why I changed Blue's name to Green is because in Japan, that's what he's called. And the girl is Blue. I read about 6 books of Pokemon Special and can't stop typing 'Green' every time I wanna put 'Blue'. Besides, Green sounds badassier than Blue."**

**Muse: "…badassier?"**

**DJG: "…..shut up!"**

**Muse: "Also, DJG gave The Dragon Clan Elder a name, since typing out Dragon Clan Elder all the time is very annoying. His name is Nicolai, so remember that."**

**Green's POV**

"You gonna be okay, Green?" Koga asked, wrapping up my arm from where he'd administered a cure to the poison on the net. Thank God Janine wasn't here, she knew waaaay less about this than her dad did.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Does Pidgeot need to go to the Pokemon Center?" I asked, worried for my favorite bird Pokemon. Koga shook his head, smirking.

"Nah, she'll be alright. Pokemon deal with poison a lot better than people do. Hey, can you move your legs yet?"

I looked at them and frowned when I got no response. Nothing…nothing…twitch! "Not really. Damn, who's idea was it to combine paralysis with poison? Whoever it is, I hope he's in there!" I muttered, gesturing to the ice statue. I was still in awe of the huge display the dragon users and Lyra's fiancé had put on for us. I knew they were strong, but _DAMN._

"Well, it'll probably be awhile before it wears off, I don't know exactly how long because I've never tried mixing Pokemon status ailments. We'll have to wait and see. I wouldn't guess it would last longer than a few days, but if it does, you should be looked at. You should see a doctor anyway." he said. "Even with that cure I gave you. That was only to get rid of the poison, it won't heal the damage that's already been done. We didn't need you paralyzed from the neck down, the waist down is bad enough!"

"How's everyone else?" I asked, ignoring my own current disability. My Pokemon had been paralyzed before, and now I knew firsthand just how frightening it was. How many times had Pokemon trainers commanded their Pokemon with a paralyzed status to keep attacking? I know I'd never do it again. And the next time I was at a Pokemart, I was buying their entire stock of Parlyz Heal.

"Pigtails, Sabrina, and Mom are waking people up right now. Lucky your grandpa left to go contact Red before this happened, huh?" Koga said, helping me into the house.

I snorted. "Yeah, if only they got back a little sooner. It would have been too easy for us to beat the Rockets if Red was here."

Koga laughed loudly as we walked into the living room. "Too true! Little Red seemed to be able to handle it with the Dragon Duo, though!" Did I mention Koga had the irritating habit of nicknaming everyone he met? The only ones he didn't nickname were me, Red, and-

"Blue? What are you doing here?" I asked in shock, as my other childhood friend stood up from her place on the couch and promptly tackled me out of Koga's grip. Violent as ever, I see.

"You _idiot_! What were you thinking, _riding _your Pidgeot while you attacked that Murkrow? Leave the crazy stuff to _me_, kapeesh?" she shrieked, poking me in the nose to emphasize her words.

"It was an easy win, so lay off. Anyway, how did you get here so fast? The battle's only been over for, what, twenty minutes?" I asked, roughly guessing the time as she drug me to my feet again, not even noticing the way I couldn't support my own weight.

"Professor Oak invited me, duh! He didn't want to leave me out of a party you two were both invited to! He's dragging Red here as we speak!"

As if on cue, Gramps walked into the house, a silent Red behind him. He froze when he saw the compromising position we were in. "…is this a bad time to ask about the new addition to the town's scenery?" he asked weakly, while Red smirked at our blushing faces.

"You've got Pigtails, Little Red, Green, and the Dragon Duo to thank for that!" Koga said, snickering. "Oh, and Leafy and Ms. Mind Reader helped too."

Blue got off of me and sat on the couch, still blushing. Great, now Gramps would bitch us both out and give us a lecture/sex talk.

"Team Rocket made a comeback right after you left, Professor." Sabrina said, seemingly gliding down the stairs as she spoke. "Silver, Lance, Clair, Lyra, and Green fought them off. Erika and I helped eliminate the Grunts."

Gramps looked sucker punched at the news, while Red looked livid. "Is that why you can't walk?" he asked me quietly, while I practically took a shit in my pants. Red hadn't spoken for…hm, practically his entire life? Just like him to make everyone to stare at me again in the process of blowing our minds all over the God-damned room.

Blue went pale. "What? You can't walk! You said it was an easy battle! You liar!" I mostly ignored her and focused on Gramp's and Red's reactions. Gramps looked heartbroken and worried, and Red just looked like he wanted to kill something. Probably some Rockets.

"Sorry, pal! We took 'em all out, the only way you're gonna be able to kill any of them is if you thaw them out, and that could take _weeks_." I said, trying to lighten the mood.

Red looked at me for a second, before smiling. "I guess Sabrina isn't the only mind-reader here, after all. Where's Lyra?"

"Upstairs, with all the other injured ones. Koga, bring Green up with you. I would just levitate him up there, but I'm currently trying to help wake people up, and don't have any psychic power left to spare."

Koga shifted my weight, and I became distinctly aware of how heavy I was to be held up for so long. "I can walk, I'm fine!" I said, pushing him away and attempting to stand on my own.

Bad idea.

My legs gave out and I crumpled to the floor, cringing at how weak I still was.

"Green!" Gramps and Blue yelped, bending down to help me up while Red and Koga looked on with looks of concern on their faces. I ignored them and tried to move my legs. Not even a twitch this time. I reached down and cautiously touched my unmoving appendages. Nothing. I couldn't feel it. _I couldn't even fucking feel it. _I looked up at the poison type Gym Leader solemnly.

"It's getting worse."

**(As promised) Ethan's POV**

I was laying down. Huh. That was weird, the last thing I remembered was being at Lyra and Silver's (insert shudder here) engagement party…

_~Gross. Who woulda thought they were secretly dating for three years?~_

…so why would I be laying down? Well, since I was already horizontal, I might as well take a nice little na-_SPLASH!_

Apparently someone has other ideas. I sat up, indignantly spitting water out of my mouth. "Ugh! What the-!"

Wait. Was that humongous ice statue hogging the view outside Lyra's bedroom window _always _here? I was now immensely confused.

"Ethan. Heeeey, Ethan. You okay?" an unfamiliar voice asked. I blinked, sitting up. Ugh. It felt like I'd been sleeping forever. But why would I fall asleep at Lyra and Silver's party? It was only about 6:00 pm when I got there. It looked to be about 10:00 pm now, judging by the flocks of Volbeat and Illumise flying around outside.

I was met with a blonde haired girl with a Pikachu on her shoulder. She looked at me and smiled. "Good! You're awake! I'm Yellow!"

_~Is everyone in the Pokemon world named after a color?~ _

Whoa, that was a random thought. I'll ignore that, I think.

"Hi, Yellow, I'm Ethan. Uh, what happened?" I asked, seeing tons of famous Gym Leaders lying around the room. I knew half of them from my own Gym Challenge, but the rest must be from Kanto.

She smiled at me sadly. "Team Rocket happened. A friend of mine asked me to come and help heal you all, because he didn't think Sabrina doing it with psychic powers was a very good method." I blinked. Team Rocket? I thought Lyra beat them long ago!

"Why are you wearing a straw hat? It makes you look like a boy." I said randomly. Whoa, I didn't mean to say that!

She giggled. "Exactly why I wear it. The after-effects of Grasswhistle will linger for a while and make you loopy for a bit. I need to go try to wake up the others now. Bye!" Yellow said, waving as she walked out of the room.

Loopy or not, I wanted to find out more. I sat up and snuck over to the doorway (ninja-like, of course). I even managed to trip over Bugsy's foot and fall flat on my face to give the illusion that I wasn't paying attention.

Yeah, that was the reason…

Anyway, I sneakily knelt down beside the door frame and listened to what was going on in the guest room across the hall. "Clair, has Silver woken up yet?" Yellow's voice asked. I heard nothing, and assumed she had either shaken her head or nodded.

"He'll be okay, Clair! He's just been overexerting himself lately. Once he gets some rest, he'll be as big of a sarcastic bastard as he usually is." a voice that sounded like Morty said.

Someone started crying, and it took me a second to realize it wasn't Clair. "It's my fault! The Rockets were here for revenge! He told me before I took 'em down the first time that I didn't know what I was getting into!" Lyra wailed. "He got hurt because of me! Green can't walk because of me! Clair is blind because of me! Hell, the entire Pokemon League is unconscious because of me-" She continued ranting and raving while I blinked a few times. Green couldn't walk? Clair couldn't see? What exactly had Team Rocket done to them while I was asleep?

"-nd a pinecone, hardboiled papercut to top it all off!" she finished, before crying random words of gibberish. I didn't even wanna know what she was talking about …

"Please don't cry, Lyra! It's not your fault! They were probably here because all the Gym Leaders were! If they could take them all out, they could take over Johto and Kanto unopposed!" Yellow said quietly.

"Yeah, and who invited all those Gym Leaders to the same place! ME! Silver only invited Clair and Lance." Lyra said, whimpering.

"You can't help it! You two are in love, it's not your fault! You wanted to share it with us! If you hadn't invited me, I would've been _pissed!_" Clair said firmly. "Oh, and if it makes you feel better, let me be a bridesmaid and we'll call it even."

I had deduced from this conversation that apparently Silver was hurt. Crap, now I can't punch him in the eye and threaten him if he's a creep to Lyra. Which he will be. Because he's Silver; it's inescapable.

"Koga said the Stun Spore on Clair will wear off quickly if she quits trying to open her eyes, and Lyra, you should be able to move in a couple hours." an unfamiliar feminine voice proclaimed. "I should warn you that you are being eavesdropped upon by another. Shall I remove him from the doorway for you?"

Oh crap.

I skillfully darted back into bed and pretended to sleep. Loudly. With snores.

"Nah, it's okay Sabrina. Ethan's not that good of a spy, I knew he was there the entire time." Lyra said, causing me instinctively to respond.

"I was not!" Aw, man! I covered my mouth, burying myself under the covers. Darn it!

Almost everyone in the other room started laughing. Curse you mean people…

* * *

><p><strong>Silver's POV<strong>

_~Ow.~_

Thank you brain, for stating the obvious. Whatever would I do without you?

_~Shrivel up in a dark corner somewhere and die from lack of intelligence.~_

…shut up.

I was in pain when I came to, but I pushed it aside for now, wincing slightly as I shifted a bit. Luckily, no one noticed. I was assuming we won with Aka, Gyara, and Dos's attack my new family and I had perfected last summer, but then again, if we lost, Ariana would have probably killed me, and I didn't think I was dead, so let's go with the assumption that we won.

I really had been hanging around Lyra too much, her rambling had rubbed off on me.

Anyway.

I could hear said rambler bawling like a baby, but couldn't really make out what the hell she was saying. I could hear other voices murmuring in the background, one of them being Clair and that creepy Gym Leader that liked ghosts too much. Marty or something.

An unfamiliar girl's voice suddenly spoke up. "What do you think, Lance?"

"Hmm?" he responded, and I almost jumped. He was sitting right next to me the whole time, and I hadn't even noticed.

The girl sighed and asked her question again. "What do you think we should do with the Rockets outside? We can't just leave them there!"

Lance scoffed. "On the contrary. I think it makes a fantastic addition to the town's scenery."

It became very difficult to push aside the pain in my chest, which was slowly spreading down my arm the more awake I became.

"Lance!" Lyra squeaked in shock. "They'll die if we leave them there too long!"

"Then good riddance to the lot of them. They came here knowing that there might be casualties. If we just let them go, they'll know that we are 'weak', in a sense, for letting them live." the dragon master said icily.

Ooh, good one.

"We're not leaving that thing in the middle of my hometown. If you like it so much, get it airlifted to Blackthorn." Lyra muttered.

Lance practically hissed. Like a cat.

"I'm not letting their filth come anywhere near Blackthorn. It was hard enough getting them out of Mahogany, and that was too close to home for me. Maybe we should just-"

He stopped talking as my fingers twitched. I had been steadily ignoring the pain in my arm, shoulder, and torso, but now it attacked me with a burning vengeance. I hissed in pain as someone touched me, and their fingers recoiled quickly.

"Silver? Silver, are you awake?" Clair's voice asked, and I blinked my eyes open sleepily. Apparently I wasn't going to be able to back to sleep after all. I tried to sit up, but instantly decided that was a bad idea when my body protested. Violently.

"Ow! What the-?" Looking around the room, I could see Lyra lying stiffly on a couch across the room, trying to move her head towards me.

"Morty, move me, please!" she said, the ghost Gym Leader obliging silently. As soon as her eyes met mine, she lit up like the Fourth of July, which only made me feel shittier. She was paralyzed. Probably from Team Rocket.

_~My fault.~_

"Silver! I'm so glad you're okay! I was so worried you were gonna die!" she said, starting to cry a bit. Ew. I don't do well with crying. It makes me revert my regular personality. Meaning jerk-dom.

"Idiot. I wasn't hurt that badly. Get over it, I'm _fine_." See what I mean? To my surprise, she just laughed, her fingers twitching a bit as she tried to wipe her tears away, but forgot about her current problem. Her Meganium, which I hadn't noticed before, wiped them away with the…thingies on its head. Gross…

I then became aware that Clair's eyes were closed. "What happened to you?" I scoffed, abandoning my quest of attempting to sit up, because it clearly was not going to happen.

She smiled sadly. "Stun Spore. It'll wear off soon. Same blast that got Lyra, in case you were wondering."

Damn. Wait a sec…

"Was is Ariana's Vileplume?" I asked sharply, looking up. Lance spoke up, nodding.

"The red haired girl, yes." he said, and my heart sunk. Maybe, it wasn't too late…

"Wash it off with water. Now." I said firmly. I began to grow irritated when no one listened to me.

"What? Why?" Lyra asked curiously. I was slowly beginning to lose it.

"Just do it! The longer you wait, the more likely it is that it _won't_ wear off!" That got them moving. Clair bolted down the hall and into the bathroom, where I could hear water running. The blonde girl and Morty practically dragged Lyra after her.

"What do you know, Silver?" Lance asked, watching me carefully.

I sighed. Here we go.

"For some reason, Ariana's Oddish-it was an Oddish at the time-could never learn Stun Spore correctly. It would have no effect or wore off quickly. So, Giovanni's scientists experimented on it and enhanced the Stun Spore with poison, and made it permanent if you didn't get rid of it fast enough. But since it was an artificial Stun Spore, it has a flaw-it washes off instantly in water." I said, watching Lance's eyes grow wider as the story progressed. Typical.

"They actually experim-? Why would Ariana let them do that? Does she have no compassion for her Pokemon?" Lance asked, and I could see genuine confusion in his eyes. Poor fool. He was so naïve.

_~Wish I was.~_

I sighed, itching my sore arm and wincing at the burning sensation. "Well, Ariana wanted it to learn Stun Spore, and she said it was still useful, so they weren't allowed to do invasive surgery or anything. Not like-" I cut off abruptly, not wanting to talk about it. I was shocked he had gotten me to say this much. Damn dragon users. Keep breaking down all the walls I had before. They're like Lyra that way. Hmph.

"Like?" Lance pressed, staring at me intently. I took the mature route and looked away, frowning. If my left arm and torso weren't wrapped so tightly, I would have crossed my arms, but that was currently suicide.

"Nothing. Like nothing." I said, but Lance and I both knew he was going to do everything short of tackling me to get me to tell him.

He gave me 'The Look.' The one your parents give you when you don't want to do your chores or failed a test. That horrible, shit-inducing, evil face that makes Chuck Norris cry for his mommy.

Damn.

"Okay, fine. I had this Houndour, Shadow, for a while, and Giovanni wanted to see if they could make him a new color. It failed, he died slowly, and I ran away and left him there. Happy?" I snarled, turning around to face the wall even though it hurt like a bitch.

"O-oh. I'm sorry…that must have been tough for you." Lance said weakly. He had no idea, and we both knew it.

"Whatever."

A few minutes of extremely awkward silence continued until Clair and Lyra walked-yes, _walked_ into the room, Morty and Blondie trailing behind them.

"Wow, Silver, that stuff washed right off! How'd you know?" Clair said, her eyes shining at me. I swear she had to wear colored contacts to achieve that shade of blue.

"Lucky guess. Can I get up and move around now? I'm not sitting in this damn bed all day." I said dryly, rolling my eyes.

Lance stood quietly, leaving the room without a word. His expression looked…troubled, but how the hell would I know? I'm definitely not the best at reading people.

"Well, you really should get some rest…" Blondie started. "Oh, I'm Yellow by the way."

I blinked. "Well, Yellow, it's my arm that's hurt, not my legs. Can't you just give me an aspirin or something and call it good?" Seriously people. There's this thing. It's called common sense.

Yellow and Morty shared glances, Clair and Lyra both deciding the floor was pretty interesting.

Was I missing something…?

"What? What're you staring at me for?" I said, beginning to get nervous but refusing to show it. Getting nervous was for sissies and wimps, and I was none of the above.

Yellow didn't say anything, but sat down next to me and slowly began to unravel the bandages around my chest and arm. I hissed in pain the closer to the skin she got. Finally, the last bandage came away.

_~Oh God.~_

I looked away quickly, squeezing my eyes shut. No way. Nuh uh. My skin barely looked like it was there anymore. It was rubbed away. I could see small pieces of gravel in my skin, or what's left of it. Oh God. I seriously think I'm gonna puke. "Let me up." I commanded Yellow in a low voice. She did, careful to avoid touching the injury. As soon as my feet touched the floor, I bolted to the bathroom and began worshiping the porcelain god. Loudly.

I didn't do blood.

It reminded me too much of some of the Pokemon my dad would kill when I was younger. Thinking of the way Shadow had looked after they tore most of his skin off and pumped him full of blue dye…

I puked again.

I sat there with my head hanging over the toilet for a while before being aware that someone had followed me. "G-get…get out!" I sad raspily, coughing a bit. I was not letting anyone see me like this. Just because my arm was a little hurt, it was no reason to-

I looked at it again.

Big mistake.

I would have thrown up again, but there was nothing left to bring up. I settled with dry heaving violently, instantly getting cold shivers when I stopped.

To my surprise, someone knelt down beside me and began rubbing something cold on my ruined appendage. I was over exaggerating, of course, it wasn't like it would have to be amputated or some shit like that, but still…I like my skin to stay _on_ my body.

"Hey! What're you-? It burns!" I said, wincing as Lyra kept putting it on.

"Sorry, Silver. Yellow said you had to have this put on every four hours or you could get an infection. And since you didn't want anyone in here…as the pretend fiancée, I had to do it. Besides, you saved our butts, so we owe you." she said, finishing with my arm and moving on to my chest. She seemed nervous, and at first I wasn't sure why.

Oh, wait. I'm shirtless. But then again, what did she expect?

"Yellow was waiting for you to wake up. She wants to take you to the Pokemon Center to get looked at with Green and Crobat." She said, babbling to keep her mind off her task.

Wait, what?

"Crobat! Oh, shit! I forgot about the little bastard, is he okay? And what about Gengar?" I said, momentarily feeling panic at the possible loss of my Pokemon. And then grew defensive when Lyra giggled.

"What?" I demanded, looking at her suspiciously.

She laughed again.

"Since when do you care about your Pokemon?"

I froze. "…shut up!" I said, turning away from her as she smiled. When _had_ I started giving a damn about them? Oh well, who cares! She had no right to make fun of me about it, especially since she was the one always telling me I should like them in the first place!

"Don't worry, Gengar is fine, but he wouldn't let us touch you at all after the battle was over, so Yellow had her Butterfree use Sleep Powder on him so we could help. Crobat has the same problem as you do, maybe not as bad, because somehow in the fall you ended up under him." Lyra explained, not helping the worry for my only Flying Type.

"Just give me my bag so I can check that all my Pokemon are there. I think I have some bandages and gauze in there anyway." I said, trying to stand up but failing. I ended up just sitting there and resting my forehead on the cool porcelain while Lyra muttered an 'All right.' and left.

A few minutes later, she returned with her own bag, and mine. I snatched it from her and dug through it quickly, first aid supplies flying around the room as I tossed them out. "Good _God _Silver! Do you really need all this crap?" Lyra squeaked as the pile grew larger. I huffed in response.

"For your information, I train in a bunch of different areas where my Pokemon could get hurt where there aren't many Pokemon Centers close by. Get off my butt about it!" I said, succeeding in yanking my belt out of the bag, the regular four Pokeballs attached to it-wait, what?

"One of them's missing." I said stonily, while Lyra tried unsuccessfully to organize the medical supplies. I turned the bag upside down and tipped it onto the tile floor. Out came a variety of empty Pokeballs, my Pokegear, the Pokeball I was looking for, my jacket, and then-

"Uh…what is that?" I asked stupidly, staring at the green and yellow speckled egg that had been at the bottom of the bag. Luckily my jacket came out first and cushioned it, or it would have broken on the hard floor.

Lyra squee'd, not unlike her mother had. "Oh, wow Silver, it's a Pokemon Egg! You're gonna be a daddy!"

I slid away from it a bit. "Oh dear Lord. No, no, _no_. I don't do babies. Especially not baby Pokemon! It'll be all cute and…cuddly. It won't fit in with the others at all!"

Yellow poked her head in. "Are you okay, Silver? I can put your bandages back on now."

I nodded. "Yeah. Hey…Yellow, have you ever wanted a baby Po-mpph!" My brilliant scheme to get rid of the stupid thing was interrupted by Lyra practically tackling me and holding my mouth shut.

"You're keeping it!" she hissed, practically strangling me while Yellow just watched us blankly, before slowly wrapping bandages around my arm and chest.

"Get…off!" I snarled, resisting the urge to elbow her in the stomach. Champion or not, she could probably kick my ass, Pokemon wise at least.

Speaking of Pokemon…

"We never had our battle, remember? The condition for letting you have the party was we could battle! So, let's do it!" I said, hoping to distract her from the issue of…children.

Lyra, of course, completely ignored me in favor of the Egg. "Oh, no, Silver, look!" she said, slowly tilting it so I could see the jagged crack going up one side.

I snorted, impatient. "Big deal. It's still in one piece, isn't it? Maybe it wanted to hatch early." Then I had to duck the impressive right hook Lyra sent my way.

"Asshole! It could have a birth defect! It could even be dead!" She began hugging it, rocking back and forth and whispering to it.

"Good riddance, then. We should crack it open the rest of the way." This time I didn't dodge her punch fast enough. Luckily, she hit me in the cheekbone instead of the eye. It still hurt, though.

Yellow scolded Lyra about hurting the injured while I made faces at her from behind her back. Stupid girl…even if she is the Champion!

After I was cleaned up and I put my jacket on, I finally got Lyra to battle, on the condition that I wouldn't chuck the Egg off the nearest cliff if I lost.

"_It's just a baby, Silver!"_

"_So? Maybe it's a water Pokemon."_

Made perfect sense to me. She didn't have to hit me again…

"Let's make this quick. A three on three battle? I won't use Milotic if you don't use Aka. Fair?" she said, and I nodded as we walked outside. Aka may be my Pokemon, but he didn't always listen to me, and he had quite the temper. Snarky bastard…

I decided to use Gengar, Typhlosion, and Crobat, seeing as I had returned Sneasel to her owner long ago and the only other thing I had was that stupid Egg. And then I remembered.

_~Shit! Crobat's hurt, remember?~_

"Actually, we should have a water Pokemon showdown, your Milotic versus my Gyarados. See who would win." I said, trying to sound nonchalant.

She frowned, and paused before speaking. "Not here," she said finally, "because we can get a little rough when we battle. Let's go to Tohjo Falls, it's close to here and we can fight without ruining any towns."

I frowned. "Yeah, but I'm currently out a Flying Type, so how am I going to get there?" How couldn't she see this gigantic problem smacking her in the face?

She chuckled evilly, and I inwardly cowered. "Well, you'll have to fly with me and Skarmory!" she said, releasing said menace to society from its Pokeball.

Oh, _hell_ no.

"I'm not getting on that thing! It'll…gut me or something!" I said, backing away from it. Lyra smirked at me.

"What? You don't like bird Pokemon? How sad, because Skarmory loooooves you!" she said, as the metal bird crept closer to me, a curious look on its face.

"T-That's not it! I just…don't like the idea of flying…with you!" It was an awkward situation waiting to happen. She'd make me hold her waist or some shit like that. And since one of my arms was messed up, I'd probably fall off and die. At least I wouldn't have to get fake married on the way down.

"C'mon! Don't be a baby! I'll let you sit in front!" Lyra, said, forcibly pushing me up onto Skarmory and hopping on behind me. Before taking off, she pulled a Pokeball off her belt and tossed it, releasing Rattata. "Tell Yellow where we are so the Gym Leaders can come watch…oh, and make sure Mom tags along too." she said, before we suddenly flew straight upwards a couple hundred feet, leaving my stomach somewhere on the ground.

"Geez! Some warning would have been nice!" I said, scrambling for a hold on the metal turkey. There was friggin NOTHING to grab! HOW did she fly this thing?

**35 minutes later…**

I slid off of Skarmory, blinking. I was pretty sure my life flashed before my eyes there for a bit. Whatever. Now I could crush Lyra in a battle and embarrass her in front of all those Gym Leaders…

…

Who the fuck was I kidding? _I_ didn't even believe it! I'd only come close to beating her twice, at the entrance of Mt. Silver and the Pokemon League. But, in the end, she won both times.

Gym Leaders had started arriving one by one. Those without flying Pokemon had hitched a ride with someone who did, Clair and Lance sharing their many dragons. I was starting to get a bit…_concerned_ about the outcome. I had never beaten Lyra before, and yet, here I was, challenging her in front of practically the entire Pokemon League. Mom was riding with Professor Birch and was carrying Rattata. Towards the back of the group, I could even see Red and Professor Oak helping Green off of his Pidgeot.

Oh dear God.

"Hey, Silver? You want to start, or should I?" Lyra asked, snapping me out of my mental breakdown.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Sure. You go." I said, mentally scrambling for a strategy. Maybe if I used a whole new plan of attack, one she wasn't used to…but how to change it up a bit…?

_~All you do is hurt people, Silver. Maybe try the defensive for once?~_

…okay. We'll play defense for awhile. That alone should confuse her enough to give us a good start.

"Go, Arcanine!" Lyra called, releasing the speedy dog Pokemon. It snarled viciously at me, lowering on its front paws as if to charge. Regardless, I knew it wouldn't attack until commanded to do so by its master.

"Gengar." I said simply, as my ghost Pokemon jumped out of his Pokeball, grinning evilly at Arcanine and Lyra and clapping his hands excitedly as he did so.

"Arcanine, Extremespeed!"

"Counter with Mean Look."

Arcanine froze in her tracks right before hitting Gengar, backing up uncertainly at Gengar's wicked facial expression. She then turned to Lyra, who gave her a nod.

"Don't look at Gengar, use Odor Sleuth to sniff him out!"

Ooh, good one.

"Use Dark Pulse to distract Arcanine." I said calmly, shifting my weight from foot to foot.

Gengar grinned again, clapping his hands together as a dark mist came out of nowhere and flew at Arcanine, causing her to yelp as she was hit in the chest.

Lyra frowned. "Arcanine, use Agility!"

I frowned. So, speed was her game? Fine. I knew how to break the rules.

"Gengar, finish this. Hypnosis." I said, as Lyra's eyes widened. Too late she tried to call Arcanine back.

Gengar jumped into the air and clapped his hands together, several golden rings of light launching at Arcanine. The dog didn't have a chance. She fell heavily on her haunches, asleep instantly. Before Lyra had time to scramble for an Awakening, I called out a final attack.

"Genger, Dream Eater!"

The ghost type opened his mouth wide, and inhaled deeply, a small purple light appearing by Arcanine's head and disappearing inside Gengar's mouth. The dog instantly went rigid, whimpering in her sleep.

Lyra stepped forward, recalling Arcanine. "Starters versus starters?" She asked, pulling about the Pokeball with her Meganium in it. Normally I'd brag about having a type advantage, but not this time. Typhlosion had lost to Meganium so many times I knew it didn't matter anymore.

I nodded. "Gengar, come back. Typhlosion, you know what to do!" I said, finally getting into the match. I'd won the first battle, if I won the next two I'd be able to say I beat Lyra, _finally!_

"You start this time." she said as Meganium came out of her Pokeball, sizing up her opponent even though she knew Typhlosion very well.

The flames around Typhlosion's neck swelled to twice their normal height as he saw his rival. He growled wickedly, anxious to attack. He knew me well, usually I'd order him to by now. The fire Pokemon got on all fours, perfectly ready to charge.

"Typhlosion, Smokescreen."

Wait.

What?

He thought he'd heard wrong. He turned around, looking at me with his usually 'WTF?' face and did nothing.

"…well? Get on with it, you fat bastard!" I said, annoyed with his disobedience.

He snorted a rush of hot air into my face and did as he was told, grumbling what were probably cuss words under his breath.

"On the defensive again, Silver? Don't be so predictable!" Lyra called, giggling a bit. "I guess I'll have to attack if you won't. Meganium, use Petal Dance!"

The Grass Pokemon's collar began to glow, and I knew that was _bad. _

"Quick, Typhlosion, Flame Wheel!" I called. Typhlosion quickly surrounded himself with a ring of fire that incinerated the razor-sharp petals before he could be hit.

Meganium was furious. She may be a grass type, but she had a bigger temper than my own fire-type starter did…

She stomped her feet a few times and her head thingies twitched violently.

"Calm down, Meganium. Use Solarbeam!" Lyra called, as her grass starter began glowing again.

Typhlosion looked at me carefully, wordlessly asking what to do. There was no way he could keep fighting after being hit by a Solarbeam, and he knew he didn't have any attacks strong enough to take out Meganium when she was at full power.

"Typhlosion, Eruption!" I commanded, my fire Pokemon shooting out powerful blasts of lava at Meganium, right as she released the Solarbeam.

The world went white for a moment.

When color returned to my eyes, I could see Typhlosion on his side, unconscious, with Meganium barely still standing. He may have lost the battle, but I was still proud my starter had made it so far. Of course, I'd never tell anyone that, but you get the point.

I recalled my battered Pokemon, wordlessly promising him a long stay at the Pokemon Center after this. I then pulled out Aka's Pokeball reluctantly. Lance and Clair used Dragon Pokemon for a living, but I was still a bit

_~afraid~_

worried that someone could get hurt from Aka going on a rampage. After all, I had not a single Gym Badge to my name. I used to have a few, but I ended up selling them to the occasional trainer so I could have enough cash to get important things like Hyper Potions and status healers. Unlike Lyra, most Trainers I beat didn't feel the need to give me extra money for a win…

At first, there was no way Aka would listen to me, all he did was attack, over and over again, with not a care of who was hurt in the process.

* * *

><p><em>Silver held the Master Ball in his hands carefully, a bit reluctant to see the Gyarados for the first time. Never once had he used it in the two weeks since Lyra gave it to him. He was tempted to, but a small nagging thought in the back of his head kept him from simply releasing the demon inside to see what it could do. Something about how <em>Lyra_, the strongest trainer he knew, besides his father, not being able to handle it scared him. _

_If she couldn't do it, how could he?_

_Finally, he decided he was going to try. Just to be safe, he made Crobat fly him to a remote part of a small cave by Blackthorn, where he figured no one could be hurt if something went wrong, before returning it. Sneasel looked up at him angrily as he tried to return her too, but she refused, clinging to his head, small claws entangling in the scarlet locks. "Fine! Stay there, then! Just don't blame me if you get hurt!" he yelped angrily. Silver took a deep breath, cursing himself for being so worried. And with that thought in mind, he released the angry Gyarados._

_At first, he thought he'd been mistake. The Gyarados looked perfectly normal, besides being red, of course. It turned to him slowly, looking curious, but suspicious. "Gyaaa!" it suddenly cried loudly, rattling the whole cave violently. It then moved towards Silver slowly, pushing him up against a wall as he sized up the teenager. He suddenly breathed in a breath of air, taking in Silver's unfamiliar scent. It blew the air out in a rush into Silver's face, causing him to cough at the scent of fish and saltwater. It also, however, knocked Sneasel off of her trainer's head._

_All traces of curiosity were gone at the Gyarados's glimpse of red hair. Silver now knew it was because the Gyarados, in his rage, had mistaken him for his sister. He didn't have a clue at the time. "GYAAAAAAARRRRAAAA!" It screeched even louder than the time before, causing stalactites to start to fall. Sneasel leapt into the air quickly, blocking the falling rocks from hitting Silver by leaping from rock to rock. Gyarados reared backwards, colliding with the side of the cave, jarring the whole room. It then began charging a powerful beam of light in its mouth, releasing a wildly aimed Hyper Beam in the Pokemon's general direction. _

_It missed by at least ten feet, slicing a large portion of the ceiling away and letting it fall. By this time, Silver was running towards the exit, Sneasel heading down to run away, too. The teen began carefully moving down from the top of the plateau Gyarados was still on, dodging rocks that were flung his way by the furious red dragon. Suddenly, his foot twisted on a rock, causing him to fall forwards. His head hit one of the fallen rock formations, and he slid down the remainder of the slope, his feet just barely touching the cold water of a small lake. _

_Unfortunately, Sneasel didn't see this. She looked around in confusion to see where her trainer was hiding, coming up blank._

_Right at that moment, Gyarados loomed up behind the small Pokemon, smacking her into a wall with his tail with much force. The Sneasel sunk to the floor and lay there, unmoving, as the giant creature continued attacking enemies apparently only it could see._

_And suddenly, a portion of the wall was blown away, a fragile looking old man standing there, lowering at the massive rampaging monster. "Stop this, now." He commanded, even the Gyarados coming to a halt at the power in his voice. It then grew angry, lunging at the old man. It was then plucked out of the sky by a giant pale orange dragon._

"_Nite nite!" Dragonite cried, throwing Gyarados to the floor with enough force to render the beast unconscious. Suddenly, another figure appeared in the doorway, his wild orange hair and deep blue cape fluttering in the slight breeze in the cave. _

"_How did a wild Gyarados end up here? And what's wrong with its color?" Lance demanded, looking to The Dragon Clan Elder, Nicolai, for answers. Said man simply shook his head._

"_You have much to learn, Lance. This is no wild Pokemon. The mere fact it is in the location of the abandoned site of the temple, which was moved long ago, should have alerted you. This is holy ground, there were spells in place that prevented wild Pokemon from coming too close. Though the temple is long since gone, those spells still remain." Nicolai finished, watching the young man beside him to see his reaction._

_Lance looked concerned suddenly. "Then…what of the trainer? What happened to them?" He suddenly caught sight of a small bit of dark blue under a pile of fallen stone, and headed towards it curiously. He shifted a few rocks, and discovered…"It's a Sneasel. Looks pretty hurt. We should get it to the Pokemon Center."_

_The old man leapt with surprising agility onto the old-looking Dragonite, flying down to where Lance was standing. "There is someone else here. I sense they are gravely lost. You should assist them in all the ways you can." Nicolai said cryptically, before the Dragonite turned and flew out the way they had come, leaving Lance to ponder his words._

"_Someone…lost? Does he mean the trainer? Well, these caves are easy to get lost in." he thought to himself, carefully lifting the injured Sneasel off of the floor and down to a small lake to clean her wounds. He did so carefully, as she began to wake up. If she was someone's Pokemon, she'd probably not be pleased to see some random stranger touching her. If she was wild…Lance decided to put her down, just to be on the safe side. Who knows how a wild Pokemon would react in this situation?_

_Suddenly, the creature's eyes opened drowsily, blinking a few times before focusing on Lance and growling as she crept backwards. Lance stood slowly, careful not to do something to startle it. "Hey, take it easy. I'm not going to hurt you." he said in a low voice, watching Sneasel carefully. _

_She shook the water out of her fur and stared at Lance distrustfully. The careful way she held her left arm close to her body made him think it was broken. "Are you wild?" the dragon tamer asked, watching her as she shook her head furiously, as if offended by the question. "Then, where's your trainer?"_

_Her small magenta eyes widened as she began to look around frantically, letting out loud yelps. "Snea snea! SNEASEL!" Lance's eyes softened at the Pokemon's antics. _

"_Don't worry, we'll find your trainer. I'll help you look."_

…_..._

_It had been two hours, and the pair of unlikely partners had come up with nothing. They went down to the lake where they had been before, Lance wiping sweat off his brow. Moving rocks had been very tiring. _

_Sneasel stared blankly out at the water, not saying a word, which worried the dragon user a bit. The whole time they had been searching, she had been running around, calling out her name loudly in the hopes of her trainer responding. Nothing but silence answered her each time. Now it seemed she had given up._

_Lance took a map of the caves out of his pocket, studying it carefully. Maybe the trainer had left before they got there, although why someone would leave a Pokemon as loyal as this one behind, he had no clue. Unfortunately, he came up with nothing, there were no other ways out except the hole in the wall Nicolai had made. The sacred temple site had been blocked off so no one would taint it with graffiti or trash. _

_Right as Lance was about to put the paper away, a sudden gust of air blew it out of his grasp, coming to rest by a pile of small rocks. The dragon master quickly grabbed it before it could blow away again, but froze at what he had discovered beneath it._

_There was an arm sticking out from underneath the debris. _

_He hadn't seen it because it was so covered in dust, it looked like an odd-shaped rock. He began moving it aside, although most was just dust and gravel rather than actual stone. Slowly, he began to uncover a body._

_Sneasel ran over quickly, brushing dirt off of her owner's face as she let out small mewls of sadness. "Sneeea…sneasel snea…" Lance carefully lifted the trainer's arm, feeling for a pulse. When he found one, he breathed a sigh of relief. The orange-haired man found an empty Master Ball clutched in the teen's grip, and pulled it away from him slowly. _

"_Hmm…" Testing a theory, Lance tossed it at the still-unconscious Gyarados, giving a small smirk as it went inside without any complaint. "I knew it…" He held the Master Ball in his hand tightly, as if the Pokemon inside would try to come out. He then clipped it on the teen's belt, kneeling down and picking him up._

"_Let's go, Sneasel. We should get you both checked out at the Pokemon Center." The dark blue Pokemon obliged, jumping onto her trainer's chest carefully, as if to protect him from anything that may attack them._

* * *

><p>Okay, so maybe I don't remember anything after I passed out, but that's what Nicolai and Lance tell me happened. After I got out of the hospital, I returned Sneasel to her original owner, against her wishes. I didn't want her to get hurt because of me ever again. She still occasionally ran away and tried to find me, but I always took her back.<p>

"Uh…Silver? Your turn." Lyra said, snapping me out of my daydream. Her Milotic was already out, staring at me with big, soulful eyes. I blinked, raising the Master Ball with my most dangerous Pokemon in it. Still, I felt confident that this time, he would listen to me.

"Go, Aka! Start this out with Ice Fang!" I commanded, no longer playing defensive. My crazy red dragon lunged forward, ice crystals forming on his teeth. Lyra smiled widely.

"Now _this_ is the Silver I know! Milotic, counter with Water Pulse!" she said, watching for my response to this.

The long beauty Pokemon blasted a strong blast of water directly at Aka, who didn't even try to get out of the way. "Silver, what are you _doing_? Aka's going to get seriously hurt!" Clair cried from the sidelines. Lance said nothing, watching the battle with calculating eyes.

The tsunami hit Aka mainly, but some hit me, completely soaking me and the bandages. I honestly didn't really care at this point. "Aka, now! Send it back their way!" Everyone gaped as Aka rose up, a huge swirling ball of water held in his mouth. He flung his head suddenly, launching it back at Lyra and Milotic twice as fast as it had come.

The long serpent didn't have a chance. Despite being a water type, she didn't like to fight, and thus, was severely under leveled. Lyra probably assumed I didn't use Aka enough to get him as strong as he was, so that was the only reason she agreed to use her water snake at all. Lyra returned the fainted Pokemon in a daze.

"Wanna keep going?" I asked, grinning at Lyra's expression at being soaked just as I was. Her poofy white hat was not having a good day, as it kept sagging limply. She shot me a smirk.

"Fine, if you insist! Go, Skarm-whaaaaaaaaat?" she squeaked at the Pokemon that had come out. This was not her Skarmory. It was a deep crimson red, a cloak surrounding it so all you could see was its skull-like face mask. "Dusssss…..kullll…" It hissed, looking around.

"How did you get a Duskull!" I demanded, horrified she had one of my favorite ghost Pokemon. "They're supposed to be native only to Hoenn! And why is it _red?_"

Lyra blinked, realizing everyone was still watching. "I…I won it, at the Game Corner in Mauville. I just thought I put it into the PC at home…"

Ethan suddenly slapped his forehead. "Oh, _crap! _Our Pokemon that Proton and Petrel stole are still in that ice statue! If they have the ones I think they have, we're screwed! They hate each other, if they get out, they'll destroy the entire town during their battle!" He quickly climbed onto his Swellow.

"Wait a sec, Ethan, I'll come with you." Yellow said quietly, releasing her Butterfree and flying after him. Most of the other Gym Leaders nodded to each other, before turning to us.

"They need to get back to the Gyms. They've already been here too long, they need to protect the towns in case Team Rocket attacks. They'll see you at the wedding." Sabrina summarized as the rest of the Gym Leaders filed out of the cave, Johto leaders going left, Kanto leaders going right.

The only ones still watching were Sabrina, Mom, Lance, Clair, Professor Oak, Professor Elm, Red, Green, and Blue.

Great, now only the best were here, also the smartest. Translation, the most likely to realize we were faking being in love.

"Do you remember Duskull's attacks? I told you once before, right babe?" I asked, almost choking on the term of endearment, but it had the desired effect. Lyra turned bright red, stuttering out a choked 'Nooooo…..' before getting what I was trying to do.

"Maybe you should show me again?" she asked seductively, causing me to blink. Uhm… okay…if that's how she wants to play it.

"Maybe I'll show you again…tonight." It was almost worth all the trouble we'd gone through just to see Lyra react to me saying stuff like this. It was freaking _hilarious. _She gave what looked to everyone as a playful smirk, but I could see the small twitch she was developing, and the blush spreading across the brim of her nose. It would have been cute if it wasn't….you know…_Lyra._

"Or, we could just be done. You can't win with that thing, you don't know its attacks." I spoke dryly, slipping into my usual stance and ignoring the frown Lyra shot my way.

"Oh, yeah? Watch me." The oddly-colored Duskull seemed to smirk, bouncing around excitedly. Lyra grabbed her deflated white hat and wrung it out, before tossing it aside. It landed with an ungracefully 'plop', and her mom ran forward quickly, picking it up and dusting it off nervously.

"Okay, Duskull, do you know Shadow Sneak?" Lyra asked cheerfully, as the Pokemon nodded happily.

"Skuuuuuuull, dus dus!"

"Okay, then use that!" It flew upwards towards Aka, who snorted as if offended the tiny-in-comparison Pokemon would dare attack him. Suddenly, Duskull disappeared. Aka's eyes widened, and he looked around in disbelief. Out of nowhere, a red blur hit Aka from behind, knocking the serpent-like dragon forward.

_~Damn.~_

"Shake it off, Aka, you've got this one! Use Twister!" I called, my crazy Pokemon sitting up and roaring angrily as he began whipping his tail around in a circular frenzy. The Ghost Pokemon had no hope, it was easily caught up in the tornado. And then Lyra had to ruin my perfect victory.

"Duskull, Curse!" she yelled, the red cloaked Pokemon suddenly glowing a dull black. Aka began to glow with the same light as he was Cursed.

_~No!~_

I wasn't stupid, I knew there was no way it would be fair to make Aka keep fighting, so I recalled him and prepared to send out Gengar again.

The rest of the battle passed on as a blur, I didn't remember details as what happened next was far more important. Gengar was about to finish off Duskull, and

_~I would win, finally,~_

Green's eyes drooped and he slumped forward limply, Red and Blue's arms the only thing keeping him from collapsing.

"Green? GREEN! What's wrong! Wake up, _talk to me!" _Blue shrieked, as Professor Elm pulled her away from him. Red just looked worried, but when you never talk, you have to learn to communicate another way. Red used facial expressions. It was amazing that even an unfriendly bastard like me could tell what he was 'saying'.

_Green?_

_The poison._

_It was Team Rocket…_

_This is _my_ fault._

I stepped forward, shaking my head at him. "No, Red. You're wrong." I got some strange looks from everyone else, but I continued studying the unconscious Gym Leader carefully. My father had been researching mixing status effects for years, but apparently had just made it his top priority since recoloring Pokemon seemed to have failed.

The last time I was there, the effects could be counteracted by taking the medicine for it that was normally reserved for Pokemon, but there had to be something added to it to make it safe for people. What would they have used…?

And then I got it.

"Someone, give me an Antidote? I have a Parylz Heal in my bag. Lyra, go get it." I commanded, taking it from her as she retrieved it with no complaint, handing me an Antidote as well. I quickly pulled the bottle from inside it, my fingers brushing against something sharp that hadn't been there before. I ignored it for now, and continued working.

"I need an empty container, now." I said, but no one moved. I saw Mom glance uneasily at Professor Elm, who merely shrugged. "Hey!" I said, snapping them out of it. "I said now! What, you want him to die? I can't do anything unless you guys help!"

That got them moving. In two seconds, Red had pulled a Potion from his bag and smacked it solidly against the wall of the cave, knocking the tall neck off and leaving a bowl-shape. He handed it to me silently, before retreating to his friend's side.

Let's see…I need a Cheri and a Pecha Berry…that should help with the paralysis and poison but…what about anything else they may have added?

"Quick, what's his favorite and least favorite foods?" I asked, looking mainly at Red, Blue, and Professor Oak. Only the eldest of those three even seemed to understand what I was trying, which was great because I didn't even know!

"He likes omelettes, and hates lemon drops with a passion. Why?" Blue piped up, causing Red and Oak to stare. "What? He's been my friend since we were little! I _have_ to know this stuff!"

I added that to my mental checklist in case we needed to do this again. "Okay, Iapapa it is…it'll confuse him, but should help get his strength up…"

I continued mumbling, quickly mixing the three berries with the Potion, Antidote, and Parlyz Heal. But when I finished, it still didn't look the right shade of red. What was I missing?

Suddenly, Clair was there, an indigo Berry in her hand. "A Chesto….cures Sleep. Damn, how did I forget?" I muttered angrily. Oak gave a small grunt as Clair added the final Berry, before taking our odd mixture over to his unmoving grandson.

Mom and Lyra moved towards me to give them some room, odd expressions on their faces. "Silver, what's all this abo-" Mom began, but was cut off by Professor Oak.

"I'm going to fly him to Viridian, there's a hospital there. Maybe they can-" I cut Oak off quickly.

"I don't think that's a good idea. Take him to Celadon, it's bigger, the hospital will be better." Of course that wasn't the real reason, if they had poisoned Green purposely, they obviously wanted him dead and would be looking for him. Years of living on the run taught you things.

Lance was watching me carefully throughout this entire event. As we all started leaving, he pulled me aside.

"We're going to talk later, got it?" He said firmly, leaving no room to argue. I nodded grumpily, walking over to everyone else. Suddenly, a silhouette covered everyone as Pidgeot flew towards Celadon with Green, Red, Blue, and Oak aboard. It must be strong to be able to carry so many people at once.

It wasn't until Lyra and I were at her house that I realized that I had technically won the battle, since Arcanine, Meganium, and Duskull had been defeated by Gengar, Typhlosion, and Aka.

_~And I didn't even get to rub it in…~_

**DJG: "Sorry this took so long, but in my defense, this is one HUGE chapter. 10,000 words, to be exact." **

**Muse: "Uh, noooo, 9699, to be super exact."**

**DJG: "Well, now that you're talking, it's even LONGER!"**

**Muse: "Raaaaarrrg, shut up!"**

**Both: *attack each other***


End file.
